By Paul Bedard
Steven T. Miller, the acting IRS commissioner
who managed the division that has admitted targeting anti-Obama Tea
Party groups, was one of several agents who investigated anti-Clinton
organizations including Judicial Watch during that Democrat's
administration, according to court documents and interviews.
Miller, who headed the IRS Services and
Enforcement Division from 2009 until the end of last year, is named in
court documents as part of a trio of Internal Revenue Service officials
who allegedly characterized the 1998-2001 investigation of Judicial Watch as politically motivated.
According to court papers, one agent in the
case reportedly told the legal watchdog group, "What do you expect when
you sue the president?" Miller reportedly added that the Judicial Watch
audit, coming after the group sent the White House a lengthy Freedom of
Information Act request, "had created at least the appearance of a
problem."
At the time, several groups probing various
Clinton administration scandals were being audited, leading to charges
that the president was manipulating the IRS to target his enemies.
While written evidence was hard to come by at
the time, the current Obama scandal is detailed in a forthcoming audit
and a timeline provided by the House Ways and Means Committee, which has been probing the issue. A section of the committee timeline provided to Secrets mentions Miller:
"July 25, 2012. The Ways and Means Oversight
Subcommittee holds a hearing on charitable organizations. In response to
questions regarding reported IRS harassment of conservative groups,
then-IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement Steve Miller
tells the Subcommittee, 'I am aware that some 200 501(c)(4) applications
fell into this category [the determinations letter process]. We did
group those organizations together to ensure consistency, to ensure
quality.' Miller made no reference to the IRS's discriminatory
practices."
According to the IRS website, Miller, a
lawyer, joined the IRS in the office of chief counsel in 1987 and "has
served most of his 25 years at the IRS, an agency in the Treasury
Department, in its Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division." That
division is the one involved in the current scandal.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said that
the audit his group faced in the 1990s came from a complaint sent by a
citizen and sent to the White House which forwarded it to the IRS. "This
was all part of the pattern of the Clinton years," he said, adding that
it cost his group "a lot of money" to fight the audit.
The group has also targeted the Obama White
House, seeking information, for example, about the first family's
taxpayer-funded vacations.
Fitton said his group has opened an
investigation of the new IRS scandal. He added that he is unaware if
Judicial Watch is being audited again.
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