WashTimes

Inside Politics

Greg Pierce

News and political dispatches from around the nation.

Judicial Watch yesterday filed a civil rights lawsuit accusing Bill Clinton and five top congressional Democrats of instigating a politically motivated audit of Judicial Watch by the Internal Revenue Service.

The conservative public-interest law firm said it even had proof that Mr. Clinton was personally involved in getting the IRS to start the investigation.

Documents turned over to Judicial Watch by the IRS under the Freedom of Information Act included a copy of an e-mail to President Clinton at the White House that stated: "I have received solicitation for funds and a questionnaire from Larry Klayman, of Judicial Watch. They have targeted you and the Vice President. My question is how can this obviously partisan organization be classified as tax-exempt under 501(C)(3). I think you and your wife have done a great job in spite of the partisan attacks against both of you."

Judicial Watch, in a prepared statement, said: "The IRS documents show the e-mail, which was sent to the IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti's office by President Clinton, was received by the IRS on or about September 22, 1998. Judicial Watch's first audit notice was dated two weeks later, on October 6, 1998. It is illegal and criminal for the President to directly or indirectly request an IRS audit of any taxpayer. Separately, Judicial Watch had been told by an IRS official that an audit was to be expected for suing President Clinton."

Reps. Charles B. Rangel of New York, Martin Frost of Texas, James P. Moran of Virginia and John Lewis of Georgia, as well as Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, also were accused of starting "a widespread campaign to illegally pressure the IRS to audit Judicial Watch." All are Democrats.

The lawsuit will be heard by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit charges the lawmakers of conspiring to violate Judicial Watch's First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2002

Answers

The actions Judicial Watch brought against the Clinton Administration with respect to Filegate were solid as hell. (Filegate involved getting the raw files on hundreds of Republicans from the FBI. This should have caused bipartisan outrage, but the Democrats pretended to believe the Administration's story, that it was a "mistake" on the part of one individual, a man named Livingstone.)

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2002