- In a precedent-setting case, the IRS wielded new power
to punish the political speech of those who "espouse views" the
government considers "inconsistent" with government-held beliefs.
In a hearing originally closed to the public in a secret tribunal on a
military island, but moved to a public location after protests from the
press and the public, the IRS wants to wield this power against a former
IRS whistleblower, who was forced to resign upon his discovery of fraud
in the agency. After monitoring and taping the whistleblower's appearances
on Sixty Minutes, talk radio shows, and political publications where he
rebroadcast his findings of IRS fraud, the IRS initiated this inquisition
against their former whistleblower. This new power may find new political
targets soon enough.
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- The IRS, through the small office of "Director of
Practice," claims the authority to wield carte blanche authority over
all the other powers of government -- the authority to monitor, surveil,
and eavesdrop on political dissenters, the authority to pry into the private
financial records of banks, businesses, and taxpayers, the authority to
conduct secret investigations under a criminal grand jury, and the authority
to censure political dissenters by branding on them a badge of infamy and
stripping them of governmentally-protected licenses. In short, under the
guise of a "practice" investigation, the IRS claims the right
to wield all intrusive and invasive powers of government available.
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- A "license" to practice before the IRS -- even
for people who have never requested such a license or actually practiced
before the IRS, but are given one as a matter of law if they are accountants
-- "licenses" the IRS to conduct private audits without notice
to the taxpayer, confer with criminal prosecutors without disclosure, and
bring special "disbarment" proceedings against disfavored dissenters,
even if the alleged "disreputable" conduct has nothing to do
with any "practice" before the IRS.
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- The IRS now claims it can use these so-called "practice"
investigations of anyone who Congress licenses to practice before the IRS
-- regardless of whether they actually practice before the IRS -- to surveil
the public appearances of dissenters, eavesdrop on the political conversations
of dissenters, benefit from secret grand jury investigations, hold secret
conferences with the criminal investigators, surreptitiously tap the private
database of taxpayer information, including taxpayers who merely have some
financial "connection" to the accused, audit the political dissenter's
personal financial records, and use all this information against the dissenter
in the "practice" proceeding.
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- Under the guise of a "practice" investigation,
the IRS can ignore all the normal procedural protections against an illicit
audit while it conducts such an audit. Simultaneously, the IRS can ignore
all the legal protections afforded a person accused of a crime while conferencing
with the people conducting a criminal investigation. Indeed, the IRS can
even ignore the sunshine laws, as the records of such "practice investigation"
are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, as are
grand jury proceedings.
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- The IRS claims it can exercise this authority in a secret
proceeding without allowing a person the opportunity to cure any alleged
mistakes, the opportunity to prepare a defense by knowing the exact facts
they are accused of, without any opportunity for discovery, without any
opportunity to call witnesses necessary for their defense, without any
opportunity to cross examine their accusers, without any opportunity to
testify at their own hearing about the merits of their position, without
being forced to testify against themselves without such an assertion being
held against them, and without even an opportunity for a hearing on the
evidence.
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- This power of this little office with a Napoleonic vision
goes even beyond the Patriot Act type authority and stories of FBI monitoring
of war protesters.
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- Too Hoover-ish to be true in modern America? Just read
the case of the IRS against Joe Banister scheduled for a "hearing"
-- a hearing where the IRS prohibited Banister from introducing any witnesses
or presenting any evidence as to his defenses, and even discussing the
sincerity, the truth or the "reasonableness" of his positions
-- on December 1 in the city by the bay, in the Tax Court chambers of the
federal courthouse in San Francisco. History is being made.
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- Robert R. Raymond
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- Robert R. Raymond is the past Independent candidate for
the U.S House of Representatives for Wisconsin's 5th District in the 2002
elections. A political activist for the past eight years, he can be reached
by e-mail at<mailto:rr@rraymond.org rr@rraymond.org .
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- http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/r/raymond/03/raymond121603.htm
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