IRS Faces Lawsuit After Stealing 60 Million Medical Records

Jim Hoft
thegatewaypundit.com
May 16, 2013

The IRS is facing a lawsuit after stealing 60 million medical records from 10 million patients.
Healthcare IT News reported:

The Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges.

According to a report by Courthousenews.com, an unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in California is suing the IRS, alleging that some 60 million medical records from 10 million patients were stolen by 15 IRS agents. The personal health information seized on March 11, 2011, included psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug treatment and other medical treatment data.

“This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power by several Internal Revenue Service agents,” the complaint reads. “No search warrant authorized the seizure of these records; no subpoena authorized the seizure of these records; none of the 10,000,000 Americans were under any kind of known criminal or civil investigation and their medical records had no relevance whatsoever to the IRS search. IT personnel at the scene, a HIPPA facility warning on the building and the IT portion of the searched premises, and the company executives each warned the IRS agents of these privileged records,” it continued.

According to the case, the IRS agents had a search warrant for financial data pertaining to a former employee of the John Doe company, however, “it did not authorize any seizure of any healthcare or medical record of any persons, least of all third parties completely unrelated to the matter,” the complaint read.

The lawsuit is seeking punitive damages for constitutional violations, as well as $25,000 “per violation per individual” in compensatory damages. Those damages could start at a minimum total of $250 billion.

Leaked Docs: IRS Targeting Conservatives In What Media Called ‘Conspiracy’

Anthony Gucciardi
Infowars.com
May 14, 2013

The IRS has been forced to admit that it specifically targeted conservatives teaching the Constitution and those who criticized the government at large following newly leaked documents obtained from political aides — a fact that was deemed a ‘conspiracy theory’ by the media back in 2012.

Revealed on May 11th in a report by Washington Post that was later picked up by others, senior Internal Revenue Service employees waged financial warfare on groups labeled as ‘patriots’, those questioning government, groups teaching the Constitution to the public, and even conservatives at large. This was originally highlighted as a concern back in 2012, but was quickly dismissed as a conspiracy theory by the major news media outlets who sided with the IRS over the people.

Setting up non-profits who “criticize” the way in which the country is run to lose their tax-exempt status and be run into financial ruin due to the fact they dared to question the government, the IRS is now openly prosecuting citizens for their beliefs through an authoritarian and passive aggressive method of thought crime enforcement. And if you disagree with the government, or even try and teach the Constitution (the very fabric of our entire nation), then you’re going to get hit.

I am quite sure that my name sits upon this list, and that these senior officials are itching to send myself and Storyleak as a whole into financial solitary confinement for questioning official stories and media rhetoric.

ORIGINALLY LABELED A ‘CONSPIRACY THEORY’

But do you remember when, back in 2012, it was a ‘conspiracy theory’ that the IRS targeted patriot groups?

And perhaps the most concerning part about all of this as well is the fact that in 2012, IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman actually told Congress on record that the IRS had not been targeting conservative/Constitution-based groups. This is now exposed to be little more than a complete fabrication, as the latest details of the inspector general’s audit leaked to Washington Post discusses how top IRS officials like Lois G. Lerner actually knew that this was going on since June 2011 — much earlier than the 2012 Congress date.

What this tells us is that the IRS is really not even against lying on record to Congress, and that we really don’t know the full extent to which they have targeted groups that discuss the Constitution or dare to question the government.

The news ties into the recent declaration by Google that government criticism on the web is under attack at record levels, with over 24,000 pieces of content currently being targeted by government takedown notices. Content that criticizes government officials or their associates are quickly being nailed by governments around the world, and we don’t know how Google will go about addressing the takedown requests. In the company’s own words, the attempts by government to censor negative press is truly hitting levels never before seen.

Meanwhile, Obama tells us to ignore those who warn of government corruption and tyranny, and calls the current United States administration ‘brave’ and ‘unique’. The reality is that when even the IRS is attacking those who spread opposing views or discuss the document in which this nation was founded, there is no longer any denying that the government has declared war on those who question it.

This post originally appeared at Story Leak

This article was posted: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 6:15 am

IRS scrutiny went beyond Tea Party, targeting of conservative groups broader than thought

Published May 13, 2013
FoxNews.com

An IRS campaign to apply additional scrutiny to conservative groups went beyond targeting “Tea Party” and “patriot” groups to include those focused on government spending, the Constitution and several other broad areas.

The additional guidelines created by the agency were part of a timeline, obtained by Fox News, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which is looking into the controversial IRS practice. IRS officials apologized Friday for the scrutiny, but new information suggests senior leaders were apprised of the effort as early as 2011 despite public denials from the top.

Republican lawmakers have vowed to investigate and hold hearings, calling the revelations deeply troubling.

“The conclusion that the IRS came to is that they did have agents who were engaged in intimidation of political groups,” Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers told “Fox News Sunday.” “I don’t care if you’re a conservative, a liberal, a Democrat or a Republican, this should send a chill up your spine. It needs to have a full investigation.”

The internal IG timeline shows a unit in the agency was looking at Tea Party and “patriot” groups dating back to early 2010. But it shows that list of criteria drastically expanding by the time a June 2011 briefing was held. It then included groups focused on government spending, government debt, taxes, and education on ways to “make America a better place to live.” It even flagged groups whose file included criticism of “how the country is being run.”

By early 2012, the criteria were updated to include organizations involved in “limiting/expanding government,” education on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and social economic reform.

Taken together, the findings of the IG and the initial admissions by the IRS Friday are fueling complaints from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Evidence that the IRS was flagging such groups in 2011 was included in a draft inspector general’s report obtained Saturday by Fox News and other news organizations and expected to be released in full later this week.

That information seemingly contradicts public statements by IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who told congressional investigators in March 2011 that specific groups were not being targeted.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins on Sunday also called the IRS activities chilling and said she was disappointed that President Obama had not condemned the actions.

“This is truly outrageous and it contributes to the profound distrust that the American people have in government,” Collins told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It is absolutely chilling that the IRS was singling out conservative groups for extra review. And I think that it’s very disappointing that the president hasn’t personally condemned this.”

At about the same time, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney released a statement saying: “If the inspector general finds that there were any rules broken or that conduct of government officials did not meet the standards required of them, the president expects that swift and appropriate steps will be taken to address any misconduct.”

Michigan Republican Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Friday his committee will hold a hearing on the issue.

The IRS said Friday that it was sorry for what it called the “inappropriate” targeting of the conservative groups during the 2012 elections.

Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias.

But on June 29, 2011, Lerner found out that such groups were being targeted, according to the inspector general’s report.

She was told at a meeting that groups with “Tea Party,” “Patriot” or “9/12 Project” in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report states.

The 9/12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck.

Collins also said she does not believe the activity was limited to “a couple of rogue IRS employees.”

“After all,” she added, “groups with `progressive’ in their names were not targeted similarly.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.