The Obama campaign contributor who led the investigation into the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups has been invited to testify about the poor investigation before Congress next week.
This photo taken March 22, 2013, shows the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington. The IRS issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds last year to people using stolen identities, with some of the money going to addresses in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland, according to a Treasury report released Thursday. The IRS sent a total of 655 tax refunds to a single address in Lithuania, and 343 refunds went to a lone address in Shanghai. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) AP Photo/Susan Walsh
The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation, and Regulatory Affairs will hold a hearing on Thursday. The point of the hearing is to investigate the Justice Department's investigation into the IRS abuse scandal. The hearing is titled, “The IRS Targeting Investigation: What is the Administration Doing?
“Based on everything we know, I don’t know how any rationale person would say this investigation sure looks to be compromised,” Rep. Jim Jordan, the subcommittee chairman told TheBlaze earlier this month.
The House oversight committee announced Thursday that it has invited Justice Department trial attorney Barbara Bosserman—who contributed nearly $7,000 to Barack Obama's presidential campaigns and the Democratic party – to testify at the hearing.
Shortly after the disclosure that Bosserman was leading the probe, the Wall Street Journal first reported surfaced that the Justice Department would not bring any criminal charges against IRS personnel.
The IRS admitted in May 2013 that it had targeted Tea Party and other conservative organizations who had applied for tax exempt status. Tea Party groups were asked to provide the tax agency with information such as the content of their prayers and why books they have read. Since the admission, acting IRS Commissioner Stephen Miller and exempt organizations head Lois Lerner resigned. But Congress still has many unanswered questions.
Bosserman was an Obama donor in the early stages of the president’s 2008 primary campaign Hillary Clinton. She was a consistent donor to Obama in the 2008 race, making three $250 contributions in September and October of that year; one $750 donation in September; three $500 donations in January through March and two $300 contributions to Obama in February and March, according to the Center for Responsive Politics that tracks money in politics.
She continued giving to the president in 2012, contributing $1,000 to Obama’s campaign in May, $500 in September and another $500 in November, days before the election. Bosserman also donated $400 to the DNC in 2004 and $250 in 2008.
Earlier this month House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jordan cowrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking that Bosserman be removed from the investigation.
“It is unbelievable that the Department would choose such an individual to examine the federal government’s systematic targeting and harassment of organizations opposed to the President’s policies,” the letter states. “At the very least, Ms. Bosserman’s involvement is highly inappropriate and has compromised the Administration’s investigation of the IRS.”
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