Jan. 14, 2021 - Epoch Times
10:31
| 
| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| I got a question. | |
| Based on the new Trump impeachment standard, why wasn't President Barack Obama impeached? | |
| It's no longer just a political scandal. | |
| The IRS's alleged targeting of conservative groups is now the subject of a criminal investigation. | |
| The FBI is coordinating with the Justice Department to see if any laws were broken in connection with those matters related to the IRS. A just-released investigative report by the IRS's own watchdog says that more than half of the conservative groups targeted were asked for irrelevant and unnecessary information, all part of an effort to single out Tea Party organizations that were applying for tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny. | |
| When the IRS first acknowledged and apologized for inappropriately targeting Tea Party groups, it said the actions were limited to officials in this Cincinnati field office. | |
| But ABC News has obtained documents showing other IRS offices around the country were involved, including two in California and the headquarters in Washington, D.C. The White House insists it had no idea any of this was going on. | |
| Can you say categorically that nobody at the White House and nobody on the president's political team had any knowledge or was involved in any way in the targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS? Yes. | |
| Absolutely not. | |
| I mean, we learn about everything we know about this from what we see in your reports. | |
| Conservatives aren't buying. | |
| And at the center of this IRS scandal, the head of the tax exempt section, Lois Lerner. | |
| The scandal at the IRS took an unusual turn on Capitol Hill. | |
| The woman who heads the unit that was using keywords like Tea Party to target conservative groups was called to testify before Congress. | |
| Here's what Forbes said. | |
| In March 2014, Nine months after receiving a congressional subpoena to preserve and turn over the information, the IRS deleted approximately 24,000 Lerner emails and destroyed Lerner's hard drive. | |
| Many emails were lost forever when 422 backup tapes were wiped clean despite a preservation order and subpoena. | |
| The House Oversight Committee report said the IRS failed to take even simple steps to ensure compliance with the order. | |
| End of quote. | |
| What? | |
| Deleted 24,000 emails? | |
| and did what to Lerner's hard drive? | |
| Yet Lerner wasn't prosecuted? | |
| Not by Obama? | |
| Not by Trump This is a reluctance to prosecute A former official for political reasons. | |
| The evidence of her guilt is overwhelming. | |
| The Obama administration, the Loretta Lynch Justice Department, decided not to do anything. | |
| I say this about my friend Jeff Sessions. | |
| The Sessions Justice Department sounds like the Loretta Lynch Justice Department because of its refusal to prosecute an obviously guilty person with an overwhelming amount of evidence for abusing the power the government gave her. | |
| She played the fifth, but first gave a long statement declaring her innocence. | |
| Now, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many lawyers, this meant she waived her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. | |
| Members of this committee have accused me of providing false information when I responded to questions about the IRS processing of applications for tax exemption. | |
| I have not done anything wrong. | |
| I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee. | |
| And while I would very much like to answer the Committee's questions today, I've been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right not to testify or answer questions related to the subject matter of this hearing. | |
| Once again, didn't her long statement declaring her innocence mean that she waived her right against self-incrimination? | |
| You have made an opening statement in which you made assertions of your innocence, Assertions, you did nothing wrong. | |
| Assertions, you broke no laws or rules. | |
| Additionally, you have authenticated earlier answers to the IG. At this point, I believe you have not asserted your rights, but in fact have effectively waived your rights. | |
| Would you please seek counsel for further guidance on this matter? | |
| matter, will we wait? | |
| I will not answer any questions or testify about the subject matter of this committee's So she pled the fifth, kept her job, and was placed on administrative leave. | |
| Isn't that a vacation? | |
| The manager at the center of the IRS scandal is being replaced. | |
| Lois Lerner is in charge of that division that targeted conservative groups. | |
| On Wednesday, she told a House committee she did nothing wrong, then she invoked the Fifth Amendment. | |
| According to Senator Chuck Grassley, Lerner was asked to resign, but she has refused. | |
| She is now on paid administrative leave. | |
| All right, why wasn't Obama impeached over Fast and Furious? | |
| Back to a follow-up segment tonight. | |
| Remember the Fast and Furious gun scandal? | |
| That was a sting by the Feds that allowed thousands of guns to be smuggled into Mexico from the USA so federal agents could track them, find out who is operating and selling guns south of the border. | |
| One of those guns may have killed a Border Patrol officer and another was found in El Chapo's arsenal when he was captured last week in Mexico. | |
| In addition, a federal judge has told President Obama he cannot use executive privilege to withhold certain documents about the Fast and Furious case. | |
| Now, President Obama said neither he nor his AG, Eric Holder, had any idea about Fast and Furious. | |
| He's indicated that he was not aware of What was happening in Fast and Furious? | |
| Certainly I was not. | |
| And I think both he and I would have been very unhappy if somebody had suggested that guns were allowed to pass through that could have been prevented by the United States of America. | |
| Oh, really? | |
| No knowledge whatsoever? | |
| I think that in terms of knowledge of the tactics as opposed to the operation itself, I don't think that anybody in Washington knew about those tactics until the beginning of... | |
| Speaking of those tactics... | |
| March 15th, 2010, before Brian Terry was gunned down. | |
| April 19, 2010, before Brian Terry was gunned down. | |
| May 7, 2010, before Brian Terry was gunned down. | |
| May 17, 2010, before Brian Terry was gunned down. | |
| June 2, 2010, before Brian Terry was gunned down. | |
| July 2, the real date of our independence, 2010, obviously earlier. | |
| Before Brian Terry was gunned down. | |
| These wiretap applications which we did not subpoena but which were given to us by a furious group of whistleblowers that are tired of your stonewalling indicate that a number of key individuals In your administration, in fact, were responsible for information contained in here that clearly shows that the tactics of Fast and Furious were known. | |
| Now, the Obama administration refused to turn over documents requested by Congress, invoked executive privilege, and Congress found A.G. Eric Holder in civil and in criminal contempt of Congress. | |
| And a contempt report is ordered. | |
| The contempt vote against Holder went forward despite a last-minute attempt by the White House to prevent it by invoking executive privilege to shield the Justice Department documents at the heart of this dispute. | |
| But Daryl Issa, the chair of the Government Oversight Committee, said the time for such maneuvers had passed. | |
| The frustration of this committee in not getting documents for a year and a half must be satisfied today. | |
| ISA wants internal Department of Justice emails to help him determine whether the department was trying to cover up Fast and Furious when it initially denied the operation's existence in February 2011. | |
| Attorney General Holder has said it was an honest mistake and that the department was misled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the agency behind the ill-conceived operation that allowed American guns to flow into Mexico in an attempt to infiltrate drug cartels. | |
| Fast and furious, the Department of Justice's permitted sale of more than 2,000 weapons that fell into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels was both reckless and inexcusable. | |
| We still have unanswered questions. | |
| News this hour, the Republican-led House of Representatives has voted to hold the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, in criminal contempt of Congress. | |
| How unusual is it for an AG to be found in criminal contempt of Congress? | |
| Well, It's never happened. | |
| Ever. | |
| This morning, Attorney General Eric Holder is the first cabinet member ever to be held in contempt of Congress. | |
| More than 100 Democrats boycotted Thursday's House vote as African-American lawmakers led a walkout. | |
| Republicans have pressed Holder to hand over all documents related to the Fast and Furious gun tracking operation, which was first exposed by CBS News. | |
| 24,000 emails missing. | |
| Hard drive destroyed. | |
| Lois Lerner pleads the fifth. | |
| Retires comfortably. | |
| Pension intact. | |
| Nobody goes to jail. | |
| Nobody gets impeached. | |
| Fast and furious. | |
| Emails not turned over. | |
| Eric Holder found in criminal contempt of Congress. | |
| The first and only AG to be found in criminal contempt of Congress. | |
| Nobody goes to jail. | |
| Nobody gets impeached. | |
| But Donald Trump is impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. | |
| Can you say double standard? | |
| I'm Larry Elder, and this has been The Larry Elder Show. |
Export Selection