Journalists press case against IRS

By WND Staff

Lawyers representing the Western Journalism Center plan to file
motion to have the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of
Justice held in criminal contempt for failing to produce documents
connected to an audit of the group and requested under the Freedom of
Information Act.

“Based on a pattern of misconduct in this lawsuit, we are convinced
that the IRS continues to hide documents,” said
Judicial
Watch‘s Larry Klayman.

Klayman is referring to the $10 million action he filed against the
Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the Western Journalism Center,
founded by Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily.com. Farah and Klayman
initiated the suit after a suspicious 1996 audit nearly forced the
center to close its doors.

Before filing the new motion, however, the two will wait for a judge
to rule on an IRS motion for summary judgment in the case.

Originally, Farah was led to believe the audit was politically
motivated when one of the IRS’ “Information Document Requests” served on
the center demanded substantial amounts of seemingly irrelevant
information — particularly regarding the center’s investigative work
into the suspicious death of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster.
Specifically, the IRS asked for copies of all documents related to the
selection of reporters and topics for investigation.

In these documents, the IRS asked Western Journalism Center the
following questions about the investigation into the death of White
House Deputy Counsel Vincent Foster: Who was on the review committee?
What review process is used for peer review? Were any other projects
considered? What about any opposing viewpoints?

Then, when Thomas Cederquist, the IRS agent conducting the audit,
admitted it was a “political” audit and that any “decision (had) to be
made at the national level,” Farah became even more convinced that WJC
was the target of a politically motivated and therefore unlawful audit.
However, hard proof of the audit’s political roots didn’t surface until
Freedom of Information Act documents received by the center from the
Treasury Department this past July traced the audit trail directly back
to the Clinton White House.

Beverly Hills resident Paul Venze had written a letter to the White
House questioning the legitimacy of the center’s non-profit status,
since it was leading an investigation into the circumstances of Foster’s
death. Upon receiving the letter, the White House faxed it to the IRS.
This sequence is detailed in the Treasury Department report the WJC
received, although belatedly, in response to its FOIA request.

Farah and Klayman want to know why the IRS took two years to hand
over information about the Venze letter and the White House’s
involvement, since it should have been provided immediately after the
FOIA request was filed and certainly during the discovery process in the
$10 million lawsuit.

Suspicions of IRS delay and obfuscation also stem from the fact that
in October 1997, soon after the FOIA request was filed, the IRS turned
over 114 pages of material to Farah, claiming those were all the
documents it had on the case. The IRS immediately filed a petition for
summary judgment from District Court Judge Coleen Colar-Koteley, which
would have closed the case for good. However, WJC soon discovered that
at least another 658 pages of documents concerning the audit, including
Venze’s letter, were being maintained by the IRS.

“This kind of behavior unfortunately has become normal throughout
government — hiding documents, destroying them, lying, cover up. It’s
always been the case, but it’s gotten much worse during the Clinton
administration,” Klayman said.

Now that the additional 658 pages have been turned over to WJC, the
IRS has once again filed for summary judgment. However, the center is
asking the court that the IRS’ motion for summary judgment be denied,
and that discovery procedures into the long delay of produced audit
materials proceed, because Klayman and Farah still believe the IRS is
holding back documents.

“Where are the documents showing how Bill Clinton informed the
Internal Revenue Service?” asked Klayman during an interview with
WorldNetDaily.

Indeed, the journalists’ opposition to the IRS motion for summary
judgment states, “Now that the IRS’ erroneous claim in its first motion
for summary judgment — that all responsive documents were produced to
WJC (Western Journalism Center) in October 1997 — has been thoroughly
discredited by WJC, and in light of the highly political circumstances
surrounding the White House’s initiation of the WJC audit, (and) the
IRS’ failure to provide documents concerning the audit to WJC in a
timely manner, … WJC is entitled to discovery into the scope and
conduct of the IRS’ search, the existence of documents generated during
the course of the audit, the whereabouts of those documents, and the
reasons why all responsive documents were not produced to WJC in October
1997, among other related matters.”

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