Show Information
Air Date: May, 20 2014
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Ramona Cotca
Ramona Cotca is the Senior Attorney with Judicial Watch, a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law. Judicial Watch fulfills its educational mission through litigation, investigations and public outreach. Their motto is ‘Because no one is above the law’. To this end, Judicial Watch uses the open records or freedom of information laws and other tools to investigate and uncover misconduct by government officials and litigation to hold to account politicians and public officials who engage in corrupt activities.
Ramona began by referencing e-mails that go back to July 2010 with Holy Paz, the former Director of the Rulings and Agreements Division of the IRS, top attorneys of the Exempt Organizations Technical Unit and the D.C. Office. The e-mails ask how the applications are being processed for Tea Party organizations that were filing for exempt status.
Judicial Watch also found confirmation indicating that these development letters and applications were being developed in Washington and that the DC office was providing copies of the development letters with agents on how to use these examples in the Cincinnati office.
According to Ramona there are more documents coming so this story is far from over. Judicial Watch will continue to make information available to the public but as she noted, it’s up to the public to hold government officials accountable for their actions.
In addition to the latest news regarding the IRS scandal, Jim also provided listeners with updates on Justina Pelletier (See Crosstalk 5/5) and Mariam Ibrahim (See Crosstalk 5/16).
More Information
To intervene on behalf of Justina Pelletier contact:
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick
617-725-4005
John Polanowicz-Secretary of Health and Human Services
617-573-1800
john.polanowicz@state.ma.us
