True The Vote, headed by Catherine Englebrecht, in a decade long fight has won an overwhelming victory in its Complaint against the Internal Revenue Service’s “slow playing” its application for IRS tax-exempt status.
A Judge has found that the IRS (Lois Lerner being the main antagonist) engaged in unconstitutional discrimination, conducted itself unethically, and acted in “bad faith” thereby entitling True The Vote to a multiple of its legal fees as a means of punishing the IRS and rewarding True The Vote.
This is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge as it uncovers the bad acts of the IRS, its coordination with the US Congress in the person of Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer and Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings, and the involvement of the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration during the Obama administration.
Weaponization of government, anyone? Here is the Texas woman who has been fighting the good fight for a decade, meet Catherine Engelbrecht.
DO NOT MESS WITH TEXAS WOMEN!
Whoa, really, Big Red Car? You’re going to have to explain that to me.
True The Vote — the history
In the spirit of the Tea Party, Catherine Engelbrecht formed a group to rout out voter fraud. Based in Rosenberg, Texas (Houston area) — where she and her husband owned a machine shop — she had volunteered In 2009 to act as an alternate election judge in Fort Bend County at a polling place and was appalled at the level of ineptness and fraud.
In response, she formed two groups:
King Street Patriots — a community political discussion group, like a book club
True The Vote — an activist group to confront voter fraud by training volunteers to act as poll workers and how to identify fraud. Voter fraud is bi-partisan, but let’s be clear here — it was Democrat voter fraud essentially.
She applied for tax-exempt status for True The Vote. Thereafter the feathers hit the fan.
Here is what happened
Here is what happened;
1. The IRS “slow walked” her July 2010 tax exempt application for True The Vote.
Unbeknownst, to Catherine Engelbrecht the IRS had made a decision at a very high level to oppose any and all conservative groups applying for tax exempt status as an attempt to throw them off their game and to oppose their political objectives in the 2012 election cycle.
At the center of this was a woman, an IRS lawyer, named Lois Lerner, who would ultimately invoke the Fifth Amendment when finally dragged before the Congress to testify about her activities.
In the Consent Order that ended this entire matter in late 2018, the IRS and the DOJ admitted all of the above.
They admitted that the IRS identified and targeted conservative groups and subjected them to monumental harassment as part of a campaign to get them to abandon their efforts. It was dirty pool and they admitted it.
2. Engelbrecht Manufacturing, Inc., a machine shop run by her husband, Bryan, became the center for a campaign of legendary proportions as the Obama administration weaponized our government and unleashed its full power to send a message to this Texas woman about her political activities.
3. First to strike was the FBI who came calling demanding information on a person of interest who had attended a King Street Patriots meeting. King Street Patriots gave them a sign up sheet whereon his name appeared. They quizzed a volunteer office manager as to the man in a manner that was described as “intimidating.”
It sent a clear message — the FBI was watching the doings of King Street Patriots. Nothing ever came of their inquiries and the man was never arrested.
4. On 11 January 2011, the IRS showed up in Rosenberg, Texas to conduct an “unannounced” audit of both Engelbrecht Manufacturing, Inc and the personal tax returns of Bryan and Catherine Engelbrecht.
Both of these tax returns were prepared and signed by a professional tax preparer, a Certified :Public Accountant, who the IRS did not contact. The IRS auditor was unable to provide any reason as to why both of these returns were selected for audit or why it was done on site and unannounced.
The audit was not limited to financial papers; the IRS auditor went to the Engelbrecht’s ranch/farm and counted their cattle. What should have been a routine paperwork audit ended up taking three days.
When the dust settled, after consuming a lot of time, the Engelbrechts were entitled to a small refund for overpaying their taxes.
To this day, nobody has ever been able to explain what triggered these audits, who ordered them, or what they were looking for. The IRS has never answered these questions.
5. Shortly thereafter, the IRS sent an exhaustive list of questions as to the plans of True The Vote. This was far beyond the inquiries that had ever been made for an entity seeking tax exempt status. Engelbrecht answered the questions.
6. By 2012 — two years later — True The Vote had received and answered three sets of inquiries — literally hundreds of questions about an entity that was going to train poll workers — but still with no response to their application and no information as to when they might receive one. The normal processing time for such an application is one month.
7. The questions were clearly harassment — the IRS wanted every Facebook post she’d ever made, all of her Tweets, information as to family members, whether she had ever run for office, and every group to which she had ever spoken. This for an organization that was going to train poll workers.
8. The same day the last batch of questions arrived, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives arrived unannounced to conduct a Class 7 license inspection. The machine shop held a Class 7 license but had never used it to manufacture any weapons or weapon components, a fact known to the BATFE.
The BATFE agents demanded that Bryan and Catherine drop whatever they were doing and engage in a six hour inspection of a 20,000 SF machine shop that was NOT manufacturing anything even remotely related to firearms.
9. Five months later the Occupational Safety and Health Administration arrived to conduct an inspection when they knew the Engelbrechts were out of town. They conducted a detailed inspection, whereafter the inspector complimented the manager on a well run operation.
Shortly thereafter, the machine shop was fined $25,000 for such things as using the “wrong” type of safety glasses. Not that they didn’t use safety goggles, but that they were the wrong type. Wrong type of seat belt on a forklift.
They negotiated the violation down to $17,000, paid it and inquired as to what had triggered the inspection. Crickets. To this day, nobody has provided an explanation as to why this OSHA inspection happened, but nobody has sent back the $17,000.
10. The next step was complaints from the Congress in the person of Senator Barbara Boxer who complained of True The Vote that it was engaged in “voter suppression.” True The Vote had not yet received an answer from the IRS, but was already attracting the attention of Democrat Senators.
Her letter went to Thomas Perez at the DOJ who was Assistant AG of the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ and a Democrat stalwart. He would be confirmed by the Senate as Obama’s Labor Secretary and is now the head of the DNC, the Democrat National Committee.
11. Congressman Elijah Cummings took up the mantle making similar accusations both in writing to the DOJ and publicly. He came into possession of tax returns filed by True The Vote in violation of the law. This has never been explained.
This obvious politization of a simple tax-exempt application is outrageous and shows coordination between the executive and legislative branches to thwart the lawful requests of citizens.
12. A state agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality showed up for an unannounced audit based on an anonymous complaint. The result was that Engelbrecht Manufacturing, Inc. bought a license they didn’t need for $2,000. No violation was ever assessed.
13. The IRS then sent two more rounds of questions. Still no determination or a date by which True The Vote could expect a determination.
14. The BATFE showed up for another unannounced inspection even though they knew that the machine shop still didn’t actually make any firearms or firearms components.
In all, Catherine Engelbrecht would be subjected to a total of twenty-three harassing events from the IRS, the DOJ, the US Congress, the BATFE, OSHA, and the Texas CEQ. In more than twenty years of operations, Engelbrecht Manufacturing, Inc had previously received ZERO such inquiries prior to the founding of True The Vote.
Coincidence?
So, Catherine Engelbrecht filed a lawsuit. She lost the lawsuit, but an appellate court reinstated part of it. Then, the government entered into a Consent Order with her. The judge overseeing the Consent Order, US District Court Judge Reggie Walton, opined that the government, our government, the Obama government acted in BAD FAITH.
Judge Walton found that the government had engaged in Constitutionally forbidden discrimination, unethical behavior, and added a ‘bad faith enhancement” which provides for the recovery of $2,000,000 in legal fees plus a “multiplier’ to punish the government.
Bottom line it, Big Red Car
Here is the bottom line:
1. Do not mess with Texas in the form of a country woman like Catherine Engelbrecht when she is about a lawful enterprise.
2. The IRS was engaged in a political endeavor when it denied the applications of conservative political organizations in the lead up to the 2012 elections.
3. The conspiracy was broad and expansive — IRS, FBI, DOJ, BATFE, OSHA. This is the “weaponizing” of the Obama admin of which opponents complain and which sends a shiver down the spine of normal people and Big Red Cars.
4. This lends plausibility to the presence — still — of an entrenched Deep State. Remember we are two years into the Trump admin when this is finally resolved. The same lawyers at DOJ are still working on this matter.
5. This is an indication of what a serious subject voter fraud truly is.
6. This lends credibility to the allegations of government weaponization in l’Affaire Trump, the FISA warrants, and the Dirty Dossier.
But, don’t believe me, read the Consent Order.
CONSENT ORDER TRUE THE VOTE V IRS
If our government, if the Deep State, can do this to a citizen in rural Texas, they can do it to anyone.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.
