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Zero Hedge<\/strong><\/a> It has been a tough weekend for the President. First, the\u00a0CEO of the Associated Press <\/strong>states the government\u2019s seizure of AP phone records was \u201cso broad and so secret,\u201d among other factors,\u00a0\u201cthat it was an unconstitutional act,\u201d<\/strong> adding that it had already had a chilling effect on newsgathering and press freedom\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Add to that James Goodale\u2019s comments (the leading force behind the release of the Pentagon Papers and first amendment lawyer), that\u00a0President Obama is \u201cworse for press freedom than Nixon\u201d<\/strong> and things are not going well\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But, the problems did not stop there as the\u00a0Wall Street Journal reports<\/a> that while\u00a0President Obama claims not to have been made aware of the IRS indiscretions until May 10th it seems the White House\u2019s chief lawyer learned weeks ago<\/strong> that an audit of the IRS likely would show that agency employees inappropriately targeted conservative groups.<\/p>\n Via The Wall Street Journal,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n In the week of April 22, the Office of the White House Counsel and its head, Kathryn Ruemmler, were told by Treasury Department attorneys that an inspector general\u2019s report was nearing completion, the White House official said. In that conversation, Ms. Ruemmler learned that \u201ca small number of line IRS employees had improperly scrutinized certain\u2026organizations by using words like \u2018tea party\u2019 and \u2018patriot,\u2019 \u201d the official said.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n The White House, which declined to make Ms. Ruemmler available for comment Sunday, wouldn\u2019t say whether she shared the information with anyone else in the senior administration staff.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n When findings are so potentially damaging, the president should immediately be informed<\/strong>, said Lanny Davis, who served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n Of the controversies dogging Mr. Obama, including the terrorist assault in Benghazi, Libya, and the Justice Department\u2019s seizure of phone records of Associated Press journalists,\u00a0the IRS case \u201cis the most nuclear issue of all,\u201d<\/strong> Mr. Davis said. It involves the \u201cmisuse of the IRS\u201d and \u201canyone who knew about this a few weeks ago and didn\u2019t tell the president shouldn\u2019t be in the White House,\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n Republican lawmakers on House oversight committees are pressing the investigation, with more hearings set for this week.<\/p>\n \u201cExactly who in the administration knew what about the IRS targeting is one of the key outstanding questions<\/strong>,\u201d said Rep. Darrell Issa<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 President Obama and his administration seem more preoccupied with having deniability than quickly addressing serious wrongdoing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The President\u2019s response so far is that \u201cwe\u2019re not going to participate in is a partisan fishing expedition.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <!– <\/p>\n –><\/p>\n This article was posted: Monday, May 20, 2013 at 5:25 am<\/p>\n Tags: domestic news<\/a>, government corruption<\/a><\/p>\n
May 20, 2013<\/p>\n\n
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