#CPAC2014: Cleta Mitchell on the IRS Investigation: ‘We’re Going to Have To Take Matters Into Our Own Hands’

I stayed in town with my 13 year old daughter for a couple days to tour the DC area after CPAC, this year – got back late yesterday afternoon, in case you’re wondering about the dearth of posts for the past few days.

I’m still working on uploading the videos I took at CPAC which I’ll be sharing as soon as I get it all together. But in the meantime, here’s video from my favorite panel of the conference: Obama’s IRS: Political Arm of the Left? (Not sure why they felt the need to use the question mark.)

Hans von Spakovsky moderated the panel featuring Cleta Mitchell,  Eliana Johnson and former Senate candidate and IRS victim Christine O’Donnell.

Cleta Mitchell is the Washington power lawyer representing many of the conservative groups that were targeted by the IRS.

Cleta Mitchell said,  “I began to realize in 2009 that there was something going on because- normally it would take about 3-4 weeks to get a 501 C $ application processed. I filed one for an organization in October of 2009 – they cashed our check within 30 days, and we never heard another word until June of 2010 – and guess who were heard from? We heard from Washington. We didn’t hear from Cincinnati. Later – another year passed – I talked to the IRS in Cincinnati about 2 applications from clients who had been waiting now for more than a year and the agent in Cincinnati told me basically, ‘lady there’s nothing I can do because we’re waiting from instructions from Washington.”

Later on in the discussion she revealed an “Exempt Organizations Update” that came to her from the IRS last week via email:

“At 4:55 on Tuesday, the IRS has stuck into a newsletter – buried in it! – no announcement, no news release –  that from now on, all applicants for (c) (4) status, will have to answer (if they appear to be engaged in lobbying, or any kind of advocacy) will have to answer all the questions that the tea party groups were subjected to for the past several years – it is a very lengthy set of questions.”

She continued, “it’s the same subjects as the tea party questionnaires – it’s the same subjects as the regulations. And they did that THIS WEEK.”

After noting that they also just found out that Lois Lerner had testified to the DOJ’s ‘criminal investigators’  Mitchell exclaimed, “but she still won’t testify in front of the American people?  And we have the president of the United States calling this phony?  And the IRS doesn’t announce until today they’re going to turn over the emails?”

She later stated that “we’re going to have to take matters into our own hands – set up private investigations… rewards for whistleblowers…”

This is well worth your time.