“White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough and other senior officials knew of the general nature of the report but decided to keep the president in the dark about the report’s finding that the IRS had targeted conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny. Carney said it was the White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler’s judgment that the matter should not be told to the president, and that she conveyed this sentiment to senior staff.”
Congressman Pat Meehan’s facebook status:
“Is there no accountability in government anymore? In all of these scandals — the IRS, Benghazi, the AP wiretapping, Fast and Furious — we hear the same thing from the government officials involved: It’s not my fault… I wasn’t in the room… I have no recollection… I missed the meeting… Not my responsibility… I wasn’t aware… I recused myself… I only learned about it when you did.
What happened to accountability? Is anyone in this administration responsible for their actions?”
How about two other people who “didn’t know” when systematic abuses took place on their watch?
The Australian
“…He said the doctrine of wilful blindness was well established in the US, and was used against Jeffrey Skilling at Enron and Bernie Ebbers at WorldCom, who are both in jail today despite using the defence that the prosecution could not prove they were personally involved in the crimes…”
“Willful blindness (sometimes called ignorance of law, willful ignorance or contrived ignorance or Nelsonian knowledge) is a term used in law to when an individual seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally putting himself in a position where he will be unaware of facts that would render him liable.”
“I don’t know” is unacceptable as an answer from any organization’s leaders in response to systemic abuses like the Benghazi coverup, political targeting by the IRS, Department of Justice targeting of the press, and Fast & Furious.
For discussion, do the states have a role to play to protect their citizens from targeting by the IRS?
- Action Alert: NDAA Non-Compliance Bill, SB999, Needs Support in the PA Senate - January 13, 2014
- Does US Life Expectancy Data Discredit For-Profit Health Care? - December 9, 2013
- A Retrospective View of Articles from the PA Tenth Amendment Center - December 2, 2013