December 13, 2018
Today there was a much hyped congressional hearing, spearheaded by sub-committee chairman Mark Meadows, into issues surrounding the Clinton Foundation and the possibility of IRS tax avoidance schemes. The backstory is of particular importance because the hearing is being framed by the ‘tick-tock-boom club‘ as something it was not.
There is a policy within the IRS that any person can report fraudulent tax filings, or the lack thereof, by any American taxpayer – toward any individual or group that is avoiding the payment of taxes. The IRS has a process to receive “tips” and claims from anyone to their investigative unit. If the tip ends up in the IRS being able to secure missing tax payments, the tipster can get a percentage reward based on the amount of the taxes the IRS can recover. The reward percentage is from 10% to 30% of the recovered amount.
Mr. Lawrence W. Doyle and Mr. John Moynihan, are the proprietors of a firm called MDA Analytics. They are two ‘tipsters’, financial bounty hunters, calling themselves ‘whistle-blowers’, who have researched the Clinton Foundation and informed the IRS that based on their research the foundation owes back taxes. They duo are hopeful to receive an IRS award based on their estimation of missing tax payments of between $400 million and $2.5 billion. In addition to their patriotic duty, this is the financial motivation behind Mr. Doyle and Mr. Moynihan.
If the IRS were to agree with Mr. Doyle and Mr. Moynihan, the two “financial investigators” would likely gain substantial financial rewards. As an outcome of their financial motive Mr. Doyle and Mr. Moynihan consider their investigative material to be of proprietary value. They’ve done all the leg-work and they are hesitant to give the material to any other party that might exploit some of their information for a similar purpose or intent; so they guard their research closely (also didn’t give it to congress).
In 2017 Mr. Monynihan and Mr. Doyle submitted their Clinton Foundation tax research to the IRS in hopes the IRS would agree to millions, perhaps billions, of missing tax payments by the foundation; and by extension they would get paid. However, in August of 2018 the IRS informed them there was no IRS case. Mr. Doyle and Mr. Moynihan are appealing that decision by the IRS office.
Understanding that politics is likely part of the issue; and in an effort to give ammunition to their multi-year endeavor; Mr Doyle and Mr. Monynihan gave portions of their documents to journalist John Solomon. Mr. Solomon then began a lengthy process of reconfirming the investigative material given by Doyle and Moynihan.
Part of John Solomon’s research effort involved sharing the material with Representative Mark Meadows who chairs a sub-committee within the oversight committee that might have jurisdiction on tangentially related matters of government corruption.
Against the backdrop of several years of questions and suspicions around the sketchy Clinton finances, representative Mark Meadows recognized the political value of the research in addition to the factual concerns that might possibly be present.
Additionally, in the background of the timing; during the period when the IRS received the material from Monynihan and Doyle; there was presumably an investigation started into the Foundation opened by the Jeff Sessions DOJ through U.S. Attorney John Huber. So Representative Meadows called a hearing to overlap inquiry about a DOJ investigation into the Foundation with testimony from Mr. Doyle and Mr. Monynihan.
Summary: Two guys did extensive research into the Clinton Foundation and believe they have found tax violations. If correct the financial bounty hunters would gain millions. The IRS looked at the material and disagreed. The two guys then turned to John Solomon; who in turn went to Mark Meadows; and against the possibility of an open DOJ investigation of Clinton, Meadows scheduled a hearing. That hearing is what took place today.
Do not take my word for it. Watch the last 20 minutes of the hearing for a perfect summary of findings, motives and current, well, rather goofy, status. This video is prompted to begin at 02:18:40… [Prompted just hit play – WATCH ]
prompted to begin at 02:18:40… [Prompted just hit play – WATCH ]
✔ @mitchellvii
ErikWemple✔ @ErikWemple
So how did Republicans on the committee get the documents? “Those materials, we later learned, were supplied to the Republican side by John Solomon,” said Moynihan, referring to The Hill’s opinion contributor who’s been on the Clinton Foundation beat for years.
John Solomon @jsolomonReportsThere is nothing remarkable or newsworthy about today’s testimony. As my column noted, I obtained from sources thousands of pages of documents and took great pain to corroborate their authenticity before quoting from them.
ErikWemple✔ @ErikWemple
So how did Republicans on the committee get the documents? “Those materials, we later learned, were supplied to the Republican side by John Solomon,” said Moynihan, referring to The Hill’s opinion contributor who’s been on the Clinton Foundation beat for years.
John Solomon @jsolomonReportsThere is nothing remarkable or newsworthy about today’s testimony. As my column noted, I obtained from sources thousands of pages of documents and took great pain to corroborate their authenticity before quoting from them.
Centinel2012 