Swordsmyth
Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2016
- Messages
- 74,737
[h=2]True the Vote, a nonpartisan conservative election integrity group that fought a nearly decade-long battle with the IRS and other federal agencies that unfairly targeted the group, has won a major decision in federal court and shall be awarded maximum attorney fees.[/h] “This is a huge victory for every American who thinks that they can’t go up against the government and get what they deserve,” Catherine Engelbrecht, True the Vote’s founder, told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview ahead of the group’s public announcement of the victory. “This is an opportunity to make very clear that we didn’t back away and, therefore, American citizens didn’t back away—and we won.”
Engelbrecht added in her interview with Breitbart News that she believes this victory for ordinary Americans against an overreaching and unfair federal government should be dedicated to Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart, who before he passed away in 2012, when the news was first breaking of these IRS malfeasances against conservatives, called Engelbrecht to express his support for her cause.
“It’s been on my heart. In so many ways, this is really a victory that should be dedicated to Andrew,” Engelbrecht said in a phone interview on Thursday morning. “When this all began, I got a call from Andrew, who knew that I was way out of my wheelhouse of expectation that a government could do what was already happening. Andrew stepped in and ran towards the fire on my behalf. the lessons learned in that, the willingness to just charge in because it was the right thing to do—truth has no agenda, right? He just said, ‘Let me be your rodeo clown. Let me go in front. Let me go in front.’ And in some ways, maybe True the Vote went in front for other organizations and citizens and for others who may be scared to speak out. It was a long battle, but we won.”
U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton ruled in favor of True the Vote in the case, and penalized the IRS for forcing the tax agency to pay maximum attorney’s fees due to the IRS’s discrimination against the conservative organization that stemmed from the Lois Lerner scandal during the Barack Obama administration all the way back in 2010. In addition to signing a 2018 consent order that included an IRS admission of wrongdoing, Judge Walton ruled last week that True the Vote was entitled to a “bad faith enhancement” to its requested attorney’s fees. In his opinion, Judge Walton wrote that there is “clear and convincing evidence necessary for a finding of bad faith on the part of” the IRS. As such, while the exact amount is still being worked out, True the Vote has requested the recovery of $1.9 million in attorney’s fees from the decades-long court battle.
“The conduct of the IRS and the government was nothing short of shocking,” Brock Akers of the Akers Firm, one of True the Vote’s attorneys, said in the release. “This ruling ought to reflect a collective sigh of relief from everyone that the judicial system really can be turned to for a just end to this nightmare. Check one in favor of Justice v. Swamp.”
“The D.C. District Court rejected the DOJ’s argument that True the Vote did not win this litigation battle,” added James Bopp Jr. of the Bopp Law Firm, another True the Vote attorney. Bopp also applauded “Judge Walton’s opinion which held not only that the IRS’s actions were not substantially justified, but were also rooted in ‘bad faith.’ The Court’s judgment that True the Vote won this litigation coupled with its opinion that the IRS acted in bad faith should be a warning to bureaucrats that the U.S. Constitution protects everyone, regardless of ideology.”
More at: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/...-tax-agency-pay-legal-fees-decade-long-fight/
Engelbrecht added in her interview with Breitbart News that she believes this victory for ordinary Americans against an overreaching and unfair federal government should be dedicated to Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart, who before he passed away in 2012, when the news was first breaking of these IRS malfeasances against conservatives, called Engelbrecht to express his support for her cause.
“It’s been on my heart. In so many ways, this is really a victory that should be dedicated to Andrew,” Engelbrecht said in a phone interview on Thursday morning. “When this all began, I got a call from Andrew, who knew that I was way out of my wheelhouse of expectation that a government could do what was already happening. Andrew stepped in and ran towards the fire on my behalf. the lessons learned in that, the willingness to just charge in because it was the right thing to do—truth has no agenda, right? He just said, ‘Let me be your rodeo clown. Let me go in front. Let me go in front.’ And in some ways, maybe True the Vote went in front for other organizations and citizens and for others who may be scared to speak out. It was a long battle, but we won.”
U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton ruled in favor of True the Vote in the case, and penalized the IRS for forcing the tax agency to pay maximum attorney’s fees due to the IRS’s discrimination against the conservative organization that stemmed from the Lois Lerner scandal during the Barack Obama administration all the way back in 2010. In addition to signing a 2018 consent order that included an IRS admission of wrongdoing, Judge Walton ruled last week that True the Vote was entitled to a “bad faith enhancement” to its requested attorney’s fees. In his opinion, Judge Walton wrote that there is “clear and convincing evidence necessary for a finding of bad faith on the part of” the IRS. As such, while the exact amount is still being worked out, True the Vote has requested the recovery of $1.9 million in attorney’s fees from the decades-long court battle.
“The conduct of the IRS and the government was nothing short of shocking,” Brock Akers of the Akers Firm, one of True the Vote’s attorneys, said in the release. “This ruling ought to reflect a collective sigh of relief from everyone that the judicial system really can be turned to for a just end to this nightmare. Check one in favor of Justice v. Swamp.”
“The D.C. District Court rejected the DOJ’s argument that True the Vote did not win this litigation battle,” added James Bopp Jr. of the Bopp Law Firm, another True the Vote attorney. Bopp also applauded “Judge Walton’s opinion which held not only that the IRS’s actions were not substantially justified, but were also rooted in ‘bad faith.’ The Court’s judgment that True the Vote won this litigation coupled with its opinion that the IRS acted in bad faith should be a warning to bureaucrats that the U.S. Constitution protects everyone, regardless of ideology.”
More at: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/...-tax-agency-pay-legal-fees-decade-long-fight/
