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Articles by Stephen Dinan

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during a joint legislative budget hearing on local government in Albany on Feb. 25, 2015. (Associated Press) **FILE**

D.C., Alexandria, Montgomery County demand amnesty for illegal immigrants

Alexandria, the District of Columbia and Montgomery County joined New York City and dozens of other municipalities across the country Monday in demanding a court allow President Obama's deportation amnesty to go into effect immediately, saying they want the tax revenue they think the newly legalized workers would bring.

April 6, 2015
Lois G. Lerner, who was head of the IRS division that scrutinized the tea party applications until she retired while under investigation in 2013, suffered a computer hard drive crash that cost potentially thousands of emails that should have been part of the record. (Associated Press)

IRS ordered to release list of targeted tea party groups

A federal judge ordered the IRS this week to turn over the list of 298 groups it targeted for intrusive scrutiny as the agency defends against a potential class-action lawsuit by tea party groups who claim their constitutional rights were violated.

April 2, 2015
In a speech this week, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen insisted his agency has turned the corner on problems with employee behavior in recent years. (Associated Press)

Takisha Brown, former IRS ethics office lawyer, disbarred by D.C. Court of Appeals

A lawyer who worked in the IRS ethics office was disbarred Thursday by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which concluded she misappropriated a client's funds from a case she handled in private practice, broke a number of ethics rules and showed "reckless disregard for the truth" in misleading a disbarment panel looking into the matter.

April 2, 2015
Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner testifies March 5, 2014, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Investigators said Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, they have recovered 32,000 emails related to the former IRS official at the heart of the agency’s tea party scandal. But they don’t know how many of them are new. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Lois Lerner, former IRS official, won’t be charged with contempt

The Obama administration informed House Speaker John A. Boehner this week it will not prosecute former IRS executive Lois G. Lerner for contempt of Congress, concluding that she did not waive her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions when she was called to testify nearly two years ago.

April 1, 2015
Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday that said the first year of Obamacare tax filings "has gone smoothly," which he said would have surprised a number of folks based on the botched rollout of the Obamacare website a year ago.

John Koskinen: ‘Not the IRS’ of years past

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday the embattled agency's troubles are a thing of the past, insisting the tax collectors have halted extravagant conferences, no longer pay bonuses to employees who cheat on their taxes, and no longer target nonprofit groups for intrusive scrutiny.

March 31, 2015
FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2011, file photo, then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hands off her mobile phone after arriving to meet with Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, Netherlands. Clinton emailed her staff on an iPad as well as a BlackBerry while secretary of state, despite her explanation that she exclusively used a personal email address on a homebrew server so she could carry a single device, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool/File)

Benghazi committee demands Hillary Clinton appear to explain emails

The Benghazi investigative committee on Tuesday formally requested former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton give a transcribed interview detailing her decision-making in determining which emails she turned over to the government and why she wiped her email server clean.

March 31, 2015
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton belatedly provided some emails nearly two years after she left the State Department, leaving the Obama administration to decide how to handle the matter. (Associated Press)

Hillary Clinton email release delayed as lawyers sort through them

The Obama administration told a federal court Monday that it needs "several months" more to go through former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's government emails, saying it's proving time-consuming to sort out exactly what information they can release to the public,

March 30, 2015
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat. (Associated Press)

Harry Reid calls whistleblowers ‘a bunch of whiners’

An inspector general called them courageous, but Sen. Harry Reid said Friday that the government whistleblowers who accused him of using political pressure to try to win special treatment for a Las Vegas casino were "a bunch of whiners."

March 29, 2015
Rep. Trey Gowdy, chair of the Benghazi commission, sent Hillary Rodham Clinton's attorney a letter requesting Mrs. Clinton's email server. (Associated Press)

Hillary Clinton wiped email server clean, refuses to turn it over

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has refused to turn her email server over to an independent third party and claims she has wiped the server clean, dealing a setback to the special investigative committee looking into the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack, the probe said late Friday.

March 27, 2015
United States Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., participates in a news conference about Homeland Security funding in New York, Monday, March 2, 2015. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) ** FILE **

Charles Schumer declares bid to replace Harry Reid

Sen. Charles E. Schumer said Friday afternoon he already has support of "so many of my colleagues" in his bid to become the next Senate Democratic leader, moving quickly to secure the position just hours after current Minority Leader Harry Reid announced he would retire at the end of this Congress.

March 27, 2015
Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said it was necessary to send a signal to the unaccompanied minors preparing for another run at the U.S.-Mexico border this year that they will be sent back rather than released into the U.S., as all of the children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were last year. (Associated Press)

Senate demands faster deportations for illegal immigrant children

The Senate approved non-binding language as part of its budget late Thursday calling for the law to be changed to speed deportations of illegal immigrant children from Central America — but fell just short of the 60 votes that would be needed to force a bill into law later.

March 26, 2015
"It would provide tools to finally repeal and replace Obamacare itself, leaving the law's higher costs and broken promises where they belong — in the past — in favor of a fresh start, and the opportunity for real health reform," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who said just having the debate was a major change for a Senate that had been calcified in recent years. (associated press)

Senate Republicans defend balanced budget; Democrats see fodder

Republicans defended their balanced budget and Democrats walked away with dozens of votes they think can be used against the GOP in upcoming elections as the Senate passed a blueprint Friday morning to govern spending and provide a path for repealing Obamacare.

March 26, 2015
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson acknowledged at Tuesday's hearing that 282 people have had to be kicked out of the amnesty program because of criminal convictions or gang ties that were later discovered. That was out of a population of more than 600,000 who were approved. (Associated Press)

Jeh Johnson: Court should have known part of amnesty was in effect

A federal judge should have known Homeland Security was carrying out at least part of President Obama's new deportation amnesty beginning last year, department Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress on Thursday as the administration continued to struggle with what's become a thorny legal issue.

March 26, 2015