Overnight thread – Long video but worth watching if you have time.

Judicial Watch hosted a panel at its headquarters discussing Hillary Clinton’s email scandal with Joseph E. diGenova (Founding Partner, diGenova & Toensing, LLP), Daniel J. Metcalfe (Adjunct Professor of Law, American University), and Paul Orfanedes (Director of Litigation, Judicial Watch). Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s president, moderator.

As you read the following media report it is important to remember: ♦ Hillary Clinton has previously stated, unequivocally, that no classified communication traveled through her self-created personal communication network. 

So what exactly is there to review?  Either the U.S. government believes the statements by the Secretary of State to be true, or they do not.

Second, ♦ the government knowingly allowed the secret communication network to exist and allowed all the construction issues therein to take place.  Therefore the burden of any administrative compliance issue should reside upon them to reconcile expeditiously.

(The Washington Times) The Obama administration told a federal court Monday that it needs “several months” more to go through former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s government emails, saying it’s proving time-consuming to sort out exactly what information they can release to the public,

Justice Department lawyers also bristled at accusations that the government perpetrated a fraud by hiding the existence of the emails, as Mr. Obama’s team begins to fully grapple with the legal complications Mrs. Clinton has left them. (more…)

Yesterday the White House spokesperson Josh Earnest suggested that President Obama first knew of the existence of a secret Clinton email account after reading about it in the recent papers.  Today President Obama confirmed that espousal:

In interview with @plantecbs, Pres Obama says he learned of Hillary Clinton's private e-mail use "the same time everybody else learned it."

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 7, 2015

Today, Politico is reporting the White House knew specifically about the email accounts in August of last year (2014), and the Clinton aides asked white house officials not to immediately act on anything:

(Politico) The White House, State Department and Hillary Clinton’s personal office knew in August that House Republicans had received information showing that the former secretary of state conducted official government business through her private email account — and Clinton’s staff made the decision to keep quiet.

Sources familiar with the discussions say key people in the Obama administration and on Clinton’s staff were aware that the revelation could be explosive for the all-but-announced candidate for president. But those involved deferred to Clinton’s aides, and they decided not to respond. (link)

Further in the Politico article it cites the timeline of August 2014 notification came as a result of the Select Committee on Benghazi and their inquires into communication within the State Dept. between Hillary and other officials. (more…)

A new batch of emails show how IRS official Lois Lerner intentionally tried to stop inquiry about the IRS Targeting scheme back in April of 2012, and how the IRS was seeking to block congressional inquiry into the activity of the prior two years.
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released a new batch of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents, including a series of emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner to then-Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) Division Deputy Director Joseph H. Grant strongly objecting to his planned visit to the IRS Cincinnati office “smack dab in the middle” of congressional inquiries into the IRS targeting of conservative groups. Lerner also expresses concerns about a pending investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) into the IRS’s handing of Tea Party applications. (more…)

Forbes picks up on the IRS scandal being coordinated by the DOJ…
(Via Forbes)  Sadly, the 18 month investigation into the IRS targeting of conservative groups isn’t over, and it may be worse than anyone thought. A federal judge has broken loose more emails that the DOJ had surely hoped would never surface. The picture it reveals isn’t pretty. The documents prove that Lois Lerner met with DOJ’s Election Crimes Division a month before the 2010 elections.
It has to be embarrassing to the DOJ, which may not be the most impartial one to be investigating the IRS. In fact, the DOJ withheld over 800 pages of Lerner documents citing “taxpayer privacy” and “deliberative privilege.” Yet these internal DOJ documents show Ms. Lerner was talking to DOJ officials about prosecuting tax-exempt entities (yes, criminally!) two years before the IRS conceded there was inappropriate targeting. (more…)

For the average news consumer this entire scandal is too large and too complex to track.  Suffice to say, as we have outlined since mid-year, the investigative focus needs to expand from the IRS to the Dept of Justice.  – Backstory Here –
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released internal Department of Justice (DOJ) documents revealing that former IRS official Lois Lerner had been in contact with DOJ officials about the possible criminal prosecution of tax-exempt entities two full years before what the IRS conceded was its “absolutely inappropriate” 2012 targeting of the organizations. According to the newly obtained documents, Lerner met with top Obama DOJ Election Crimes Branch officials as early as October 2010.

The new documents were obtained through a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the DOJ on July 21, 2014 (Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice (No. 14-cv-01239)), after the agency failed to respond to an April 21, 2014, FOIA request seeking: (more…)

UPDATE:  According to Cause of Action some of the IRS/White House details will surface soon:

Amid a massive document dump of news on the Friday before Thanksgiving the IRS announces they have located “additional” emails sought by congressional inquiry.
Remember, AG Eric Holder is effectively gone now, Obama is a lame-duck -and has done the immigration reform he promised- by dictatorial fiat, and the Senate is about to be run by Republican leadership.  As a consequence all of the parachute cords are being severed, and we’ll see a number of political officials reacting to the “every man/woman for themselves” shift.
Remain poised, focused and positive, we’re about to discover a bounty of hidden info… We voted to stop the madness behind the curtain, we’re about to find out what’s there…..
 
WASHINGTON DC – Up to 30,000 missing emails sent by former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner have been recovered by the IRS inspector general, five months after they were deemed lost forever.
The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) informed congressional staffers from several committees on Friday that the emails were found among hundreds of “disaster recovery tapes” that were used to back up the IRS email system. (more…)

They’re trying to flood the field ahead of Thanksgiving, it’s brutally obvious.  This is classic use of “the bathtub principle” at work:

Today IRS reports recovery of 30,000 Lois Lerner emails from ’09 to ’11

Today House Intel “Panel” Releases Benghazi Report

Today Obama gives speech on highly anticipated immigration Executive Order

Today media and nation await Saint Louis Mike Brown shooting verdict. 100 FBI agents dispatched to Ferguson

DOJ Releases 40,000+ Fast and Furious documents (emails)

HHS Admits ObamaCare enrollment overstated.

Ultimately research shows the IRS Targeting Scandal is a series of magnitudes greater than all other Obama scandals. The Federal Department of Justice weaponizing the IRS to go after political enemies within the U.S. electorate is far more serious than any other controversy.
Cleta Mitchell updates on hopes and concerns moving forward: