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Documents indicate IRS officials knew of Tea Party targeting since 2011

A new batch of FBI documents released Thursday by Judicial Watch indicates that several senior Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials were aware of the targeting of conservative groups almost two years before they told Congress.
Lois Lerner, who oversaw tax-exempt groups for the IRS, and top IRS official Holly Paz "knew that agents were targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny as early as 2011,” the conservative legal advocacy group said in a release Thursday.
The IRS did not respond to requests for comment.
The detailed narratives of FBI agent investigations, known as FBI 302 documents, were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch.
According to the documents, Paz and other IRS officials were notified in the late spring and summer of 2011 that agents in the Cincinnati branch were flagging Tea Party and conservative groups for additional scrutiny in their applications for nonprofit status.
In the spring of 2012, official Nancy Marks was tasked with investigating how applications were being processed and to find any problems.
The documents show she told then-acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller on May 3, 2012 that “Cincinnati was categorizing cases based on name and ideology, not just activity.”
Miller responded by throwing "his pencil across the room" and saying, "Oh sh-t," according to the FBI summaries of interviews with officials.
Lerner, who has since refused to answer questions before Congress, was the first official to publicly acknowledge the practice, in May 2013.
No criminal charges resulted from either the Obama Justice Department or FBI investigations into the scandal.
The documents support the findings of a May 2013 report issued by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) that concluded IRS agents had “used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions.”
In addition, TIGTA said that IRS officials “knew that agents were targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny as early as 2011.”
“These new smoking-gun documents show Obama FBI and Justice Department had plenty of evidence suggesting illegal targeting, perjury, and obstruction of justice,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.

Trump says GOP convention speech was 'optimistic,' not dark

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump denied Thursday that his speech at last week's Republican National Convention painted an overly bleak picture of America, instead claiming that he was merely stating the facts.
"It wasn't dark, it was optimistic" Trump told Fox News' "On The Record with Greta van Susteren." "I talk about the problems which President Obama didn't want to talk about [in his Democratic convention speech Wednesday]. I view it as, I state the facts, and then I say we're going to fix it."
The real estate mogul added that he was "being sarcastic" when he called on Russian hackers to search for 33,000 emails deleted from Clinton's private server.
"When you look at what she has done and how she has abused the system with her server, with the deletion of all of this information and these emails," Trump said. "I mean, you have to be sarcastic when you see something like that happen."

Trump also pushed back against pressure to release his tax returns, saying "most people don't care about it," and claiming that the content of Clinton's missing emails was a far more pressing matter.
"I think she's the wrong woman," Trump said of his general election opponent. "You look at her track record, it's dismal ... I just don't know, frankly how a person like this will be electable."

Angst in Bernie ranks over push to exit Democratic Party

PHILADELPHIA –  Efforts by some Bernie Sanders supporters to organize an exodus from the Democratic Party have not only agitated party leaders but caused tensions inside the Sanders ranks – with some worried the latest effort to split from the establishment is a step too far.
“We are all part of the Democratic Party,” said Jessica Justice, a pledged delegate for Sanders. She told FoxNews.com calls to leave the Democratic Party are a last-minute distraction that will only deepen the current divide.
“We are here to continue the work we were sent here to do. We have no intention of leaving,” she said, claiming some hardcore Sanders supporters and members of the Green Party are trying to capitalize on the drama.
She was reacting to efforts in Philadelphia at the close of the Democratic convention -- where Hillary Clinton is set to accept the nomination Thursday night -- by angry Sanders supporters to convince voters to “de-register” from the party.
One such event by City Hall Thursday afternoon attracted protesters but few could be seen putting themselves on the political equivalent of the Democrats' 'do not call' list.
Mother nature also had a hand in how some of the planned afternoon protests played out Thursday. Downpours and strong thunderstorms across the Philadelphia area put a pin in some people’s plans. Those connected with the so-called #DemExit effort were telling supporters to skip an afternoon protest because of the storms.

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Antawan Davis of Maryland told FoxNews.com he had made the trip on the last day but was driving back after dark clouds and heavy rain pushed protesters away.
“That was a day wasted,” he told FoxNews.com.
Other activists had scheduled a 6 p.m. flag burning but rain could extinguish those plans as well.
The scattered protests reflect the confusion and frustration of a movement with no apparent leader. Sanders has endorsed Clinton and urged his followers to do the same.
Picking up the voter frsutration has been Green Party presidential candidate Jill Sanders, who has told Sanders supporters that she can be the progressive candidate that will carry their cause.
Some Stein supporters are operating in part under the Twitter hashtag #DemExit -- something she has deftly been using to openly appeal to Sanders supporters outside the Philly convention arena.
“DNC wants your support for lying, undermining, and insulting you. They'll lock you out if you don't comply. #DemExit,” Stein tweeted.
The efforts hang over the final day of a raucous convention -- where Sanders supporters from the start have protested how their candidate was treated by the party brass, particularly after leaked DNC emails pointed to a pro-Clinton bias inside headquarters. Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned in the wake of the leak, but that didn’t stop protests inside and outside the convention hall.
Stein, meanwhile, has maintained a presence on the sidelines of the Philadelphia chaos and she tries to keep the flame of the Sanders movement burning, even marching with protesters Tuesday after Clinton was nominated.
"Those who are in tears, whose hearts have been broken, I’m going [to rallies] to really reassure them that their work has not been in vain," Stein told FoxNews.com on Wednesday. 
For many in the Sanders crowd, Stein is a far more natural fit than Donald Trump, the Republican nominee also making a play for disaffected Sanders voters.
Amanda Sullivan of Weston, Fla., sweated it out on a blistering 97-degree day to hold her “Bern or Jill but never Hill!” sign as she joined the 1,000-deep group of demonstrators at City Hall earlier this week.
Sullivan told FoxNews.com that she’s frustrated by the Democratic Party’s exclusion of some in the party and says she cannot vote for Clinton in a November matchup.
Leonardo Watson of Georgia told FoxNews.com that while not every aspect of the Green Party syncs with his own views, it’s a better match than Clinton.
“Look, Clinton’s not an option. It’s not about party unity. It’s about standing up for yourself and what you believe in -- and right now, with Bernie out, that’s Jill Stein.”

Clinton accepts Democratic nomination, says 2016 'choice is clear'

Roger Rabbit?

PHILADELPHIA –  Hillary Clinton, declaring the country at a “moment of reckoning,” sealed her status in American history Thursday night as the first woman to top a major-party ticket, officially taking the torch from President Obama as the Democratic nominee for president -- while delivering a blistering attack against Republican nominee Donald Trump, that challenged his fitness to occupy the Oval Office and set the tone for what promises to be a bruising three-month campaign.
“The choice is clear,” she said in Philadelphia.
The former secretary of state, senator and first lady used her convention address to pitch an optimistic message, even accusing Trump of taking his party from “Morning in America” to “Midnight in America.”
On the sidelines, Trump accused Democrats of creating a “fantasy world” at their convention and spreading a false message that “everything is wonderful.”
And he bashed Clinton's address on Twitter:
But Clinton said, “He wants us to fear the future and fear each other,” later announcing she accepts the nomination with “humility, determination and boundless confidence in America's promise.”

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At the same time, she warned Trump does not have the temperament to lead in dangerous times.
“He loses his cool at the slightest provocation,” Clinton said. “Imagine, if you dare, imagine … him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”
After a primary campaign – and convention week – riven by party clashes, Clinton also used the address to reach out to Bernie Sanders supporters, telling them, “I want you to know, I've heard you. Your cause is our cause.”
The speech was still interrupted many times by noisy protests, which were soon drowned out by Clinton loyalists chanting, “Hillary!”
Meanwhile, gearing up for a cross-country campaign against Trump for every last vote, she openly reached out to disaffected Republicans and independents, as she vowed to fight for working people.
“I will be a president for Democrats, Republicans, independents, for the struggling, the striving, the successful … for all Americans together,” she said.
A day after embracing Obama on the convention stage in Philadelphia, Clinton on Thursday also defended the sitting president’s record and suggested she’d build upon it -- a move that could rally the divided base, but also make it easier for Trump to brand her campaign as representing four more years of the status quo.
GOP boss Reince Priebus said in a statement after her address, "Hillary Clinton is the ultimate Washington insider at a time when Americans are eager to break with eight years of a Democrat status quo, and there’s no doubt her longtime pattern of shady conduct and double standards will continue if she is elected president."
But Clinton said Thursday that Trump does not offer “real change.”
Clinton, even as she reached out to Republicans and independents, laid out a largely liberal agenda that at times echoed themes from Sanders’ campaign that have weaved their way into the party platform, on issues ranging from taxes to the minimum wage to immigration to health care.
She also took up one of Sanders’ marquee agenda items and vowed to work with her former primary rival to “make college tuition-free for the middle class and debt-free for all.”
Her address capped a dramatic week in Philadelphia that started with the abrupt resignation of party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz amid yet another email scandal and ended with an all-hands-on-deck push for unity meant to ease unrest among Sanders supporters and others who spent the convention railing against the Democratic establishment.
Even on the final day, protesters organized events to encourage voters to de-register from the party. And as delegates streamed past the perimeter for the speeches, a contingent of anti-Clinton protesters shouted at the gates, “Hell no, DNC, we won’t vote for Hillary!”
The big question going forward is whether Democrats’ divisions are more damaging for their chances in November than are the Republican fractures for the GOP. While Trump rival Ted Cruz infamously did not endorse him in Cleveland, and Sanders did endorse Clinton, the Vermont senator’s supporters have been far less willing to forgive and forget and rally behind their party’s nominee. Also unclear is whether Clinton will enjoy a bump in popularity out of her convention, as several recent polls have shown Trump climbing after Cleveland.
Despite some suggestions by leading Democrats that the Philadelphia affair would stay positive, the week was equal parts Clinton advertisement and Trump take-down. Speakers brazenly ridiculed and caricatured Trump throughout as a selfish businessman who has no actual plan to execute his campaign promises.
Clinton ally and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused Trump of using “fear and anxiety to drive his ratings.”
Chelsea Clinton, though, the former first daughter and an important surrogate on the campaign trail, offered a pause from the attacks as she described childhood moments and painted a personal picture of Hillary the mother and grandmother.
“Every single memory I have of my mom is that regardless of what is happening in her life, she was always, always there for me,” she said, describing how her mother will now “drop everything” for a few minutes of FaceTime with her grandkids.
Chelsea filled in the biographical details for her mother the way Ivanka Trump did for her father at last week’s convention.
For his part, Donald Trump, who has held his own events and stayed in the headlines throughout the Philadelphia gathering, weighed in again Thursday, just hours before her speech. At a rally in Davenport, Iowa, he said Democratic convention-goers are telling “lies” and spreading a false message that “everything is wonderful.”
“At Hillary Clinton’s convention this week, Democrats have been speaking about a world that doesn’t exist. A world where America has full employment, where there’s no such thing as radical Islamic terrorism, where the border is totally secured, and where thousands of innocent Americans have not suffered from rising crime in cities like Baltimore and Chicago,” Trump said in a written statement.
The Democrats’ closing convention night, though, included a sharper security focus than earlier in the week. Retired Marine Gen. John Allen, who led troops in Afghanistan, vouched Thursday for Clinton as the candidate who can keep the country “safe and free.”
“America will defeat ISIS,” he vowed, naming the terror enemy that seemingly was glossed over by earlier convention speakers. As he spoke, competing chants of “USA” and “No More War” broke out in the audience.