Bombshell: Darrell Issa has evidence that Elijah Cummings was selecting Lois Lerner's targets himself

From the Washington Examiner:

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa R-Calif., has accused the panel's top Democrat of prompting the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 to target a conservative organization applying for non-profit status. Issa said records obtained last week from the IRS show communications from the office of ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) about True the Vote, a Texas-based, non-profit conservative group that aims to prevent voter fraud. The communications at one point involved Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official whom Issa's panel is poised to hold in contempt of Congress on Thursday for refusing to provide testimony about her involvement in targeting conservative groups.

Issa sent a letter to Cummings demanding that he disclose what, exactly his involvement was. From the Oversight Committee's web page:

Newly delivered internal IRS e-mails sent and received by former IRS Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner and other IRS employees show that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Minority staff, working for Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, began contacting the IRS in August 2012 about targeted non-profit applicant True the Vote. The IRS produced this e-mail on April 2, 2014 -- only days after Oversight Committee Members had taken new IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to task for withholding relevant e-mails. The Chairman and five Subcommittee Chairmen on the Oversight Committee today sent a letter to Ranking Member Cummings demanding an explanation for his staff's queries, why the Minority hid these efforts from the Majority, and why the Ranking Member denied such actions by his staff at a February Subcommittee hearing: "Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials -- which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff -- indicates otherwise"

What is Issa asking Cummings to clarify? Well, he's got quite a list.

• The IRS and the Oversight Minority made numerous requests for virtually identical information from True the Vote, raising concerns that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with Rep. Cummings' staff.

• Five days after Cummings contacted True the Vote seeking "copies of all training materials used for volunteers, affiliates, or other entities," the IRS sent True the Vote a letter requesting True the Vote provide "a copy of [True the Vote's] volunteer registration form," "…the process you use to assign volunteers," "how you keep your volunteers in teams," and "how your volunteers are deployed … following the training they receive by you."
• On January 31, 2013, Paz attached True the Vote's form 990s, which she authorized the IRS to share with the Minority staff. Neither Cummings nor the IRS shared these requested documents with the Oversight Majority. None of the Minority's communications about True the Vote with the IRS were shared with the Committee Majority even though Ranking Member Cummings frequently complains about the Committee Majority contacting individuals on official matters without the involvement of Minority staff.

• Cummings denied that his staff, "might have been involved in putting True the Vote on the radar screen of some of these Federal agencies" at a February 6, 2014, Subcommittee hearing:

As you can see, Issa is painting a pretty ugly picture of Cummings which - at best - would mean he has a severe conflict of interest in the matter. Unfortunately, it gets worse. Here's the real doozy:

• On or before January 25, 2013, Cummings' staff requested more information from the IRS about True the Vote. The head of the IRS Legislative Affairs office e-mailed several IRS officials, including former Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner, that "House Oversight Committee Minority staff" sought information about True the Vote. On Monday, January 28, Lerner wrote to her deputy Holly Paz: "Did we find anything?" When Paz informed her minutes later that she had not heard back about True the Vote's information, Lerner replied: "thanks -- check tomorrow please."

According to this, it would appear that Cummings' staff was in active communication with the IRS Legislative office, and they, in turn, were asking Lois Lerner to dig up info on True the Vote. In layman's terms, Cummings may have been quietly telling the IRS (including Lerner) who to target. No wonder he seems hell-bent on protecting her. Cummings is denying any wrongdoing. Basically, he's saying that he is interested in stopping True the Vote because he dislikes voter ID laws, and that his inquiries were completely legitimate and unrelated to any undue IRS activity. In his words, Issa's interest in Cummings' possible involvement with the IRS is "a desperate attempt to shift the focus on tomorrow's contempt vote away from the serious Constitutional deficiencies in these proceedings." He's trying to claim that ALL of this is just coincidence. That's a bit like saying "I pulled the trigger, and coincidentally a bullet just happened to hit my target."