Political Scandal News
Coverage of government scandals, corruption, and accountability. The Daily Signal reports on scandals with conservative analysis and commentary.
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news
Why Marco Rubio Is Worried About the IRS Targeting Churches
Sen. Marco Rubio said he believes pastors must be both cautious and bold against an intrusive IRS that may be looking more carefully at their words from the pulpit after the Supreme Court ruled that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. “I think, long-term, it’s something we should be vigilant about,” Rubio, R-Fla., told The… -
opinion
The Significance of Britain’s Decision to Authorize More Airstrikes Targeting ISIS
On Wednesday, the House of Commons voted to expand Britain’s air war into Syria. Expanding the British air campaign into Syria should have been an easy decision to make, since much of the territory ISIS controls is in Syria, with its capital in Raqqa, but Prime Minister David Cameron has had a hard fight winning… -
opinion
Planned Parenthood Loved This ‘Scandal’ Episode. They Shouldn’t Have.
Planned Parenthood gave the winter finale of “Scandal,” a TV drama about politics, a big thumbs up for its portrayal Thursday of a character’s abortion. “We saw one of our favorite characters make the deeply personal decision that one in three women have made in their lifetime,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement, per Entertainment… -
opinion
Lois Lerner Won’t Be Facing Criminal Charges. Here Are the Problems With the ‘Investigation’ That Cleared Her.
In an eight-page letter last week to the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Justice Department informed Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., that it was closing its investigation of the IRS targeting scandal, claiming there is not sufficient evidence to “seek any criminal charges” against Lois Lerner or any other IRS officials. However, there… -
news
Poll Reveals What Americans Fear the Most: Corruption of Government Officials
Chapman University in Orange, Calif., recently conducted its second annual survey on fears possessed by Americans in order to pinpoint what Americans fear the most. The fear that ranked the highest among Americans surveyed was corruption of government officials at 58 percent. Cyber-terrorism ranked second at 44.8 percent and corporate tracking of personal information was… -
opinion
Haiti Struggles to Restore Democracy and Fight Corruption
Haiti finally held legislative elections last month. As Jacky Charles of the Miami Herald reported, they were “violent” and “chaotic.” But at least they happened. President Michel Martelly, in office since 2011, has weakened Haiti’s fragmented institutions and heightened political instability. He is surrounded by a network of friends and aides who, according to the… -
opinion
Lois Lerner Claimed Lincoln Was Worst President. Why She’s Wrong.
Lerner, the former IRS official who is at the center of a scandal involving the targeting of conservative groups, claims in a newly-released email that Abraham Lincoln is the worst president in the nation’s history. In an email responding to a friend, Lerner wrote, “Look my view is that Lincoln was our worst president not… -
opinion
The Poll Numbers on the Planned Parenthood Scandal CNN Left Out
Regardless of one’s point of view on an issue, you can usually find a poll that shows that a majority of people agree with you. I’d suggest that is exactly what we saw happen on CNN Wednesday, when anchor Alisyn Camerota interviewed Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., about the debate surrounding Planned Parenthood. A May 2015… -
opinion
Anti-Corruption Protests Continue in Central America
For eight consecutive weeks, tens of thousands of people have flooded the streets in Guatemala and Honduras to protest government corruption in what Hondurans are calling “marcha de las anatorches,” or March of the Torches. The protests are a positive step for Hondurans and Guatemalans to keep government officials accountable. Accusations of bribery and tax… -
news
Study Finds IRS Targeted Organizations in Biased Way
A report released on Thursday morning by the Government Accountability Office unveiled that the Internal Revenue Service specifically audited organizations in a biased manner. “The control deficiencies GAO found increase the risk that [the Exempt Organizations unit] could select organizations for examination in an unfair manner—for example, based on an organization’s religious, educational, political, or… -
opinion
Planned Parenthood’s History of Scandal
With more than $500 million in taxpayer funding annually, it’s time for the American people to know the truth about Planned Parenthood. >>> Read More: 6 Scandals Involving Planned Parenthood -
news
House Strips Funding From Planned Parenthood Supporter in Wake of Scandal
The undercover video that sparked a scandal involving Planned Parenthood this week is reverberating beyond the abortion group, costing one of its allies millions of dollars. House GOP leaders had expected the Breast Cancer Awareness Commemorative Coin Act to be uncontroversial until the Planned Parenthood controversy erupted and conservative grassroots organizations sounded the alarm. The… -
news
6 Scandals Involving Planned Parenthood
An undercover video was released Tuesday of a top official at Planned Parenthood discussing the sale of organs harvested from aborted babies. But it is not the first time a scandal has surrounded the organization. In its 2013-14 annual report, Planned Parenthood claimed it has “come a long way” as “our movement has come so far in nearly one… -
opinion
Export-Import Bank Connects US Taxpayers to Foreign Scandal
Marcelo Odebrecht, a Brazilian industrialist of immense wealth and power, was arrested and jailed recently on charges of corruption. He and dozens of other businessmen and politicians are accused of swindling the state-controlled oil company Petrobras—the largest business enterprise (by market capitalization) in the Southern Hemisphere. American taxpayers have a stake in this scandal: Both the… -
news
IRS Employees Erased 422 Backup Tapes Containing 24,000 of Lois Lerner’s Emails
Investigators at the Internal Revenue Service are looking to agency employees as the reason thousands of emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner were lost, and the agency’s watchdog said today their actions were a mistake. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) J. Russell George testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform… -
opinion
Brazil: Corruption Scandals Will Cast a Shadow over Obama–Rousseff Meeting
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will visit Washington next week, her first visit to the U.S. since taking office in 2011. President Obama says they will discuss “a whole range of issues, including climate change, energy, educational exchanges, and science and technology.” But for Rousseff, the Obama meeting will provide a welcome distraction from the unrelenting… -
opinion
Corruption Scandals Tarnish Chile’s Strong Rule of Law Reputation
With an overall score of 78.5, Chile remained the 7th freest economy in the world in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom and retained its rank as first in the Latin American and the Caribbean region. Beginning with the first edition of the Index in 1995, successive governments in Chile from the center-left and center-right… -
opinion
A Flawed Legal Analysis Is Helping Lois Lerner
On March 31, Ronald Machen, the outgoing U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote House Speaker John Boehner to inform him that the Justice Department would not present Lois Lerner’s contempt citation to a federal grand jury. The letter explaining his decision is an exercise in misdirection—the kind of misdirection that magicians use to… -
news
Loretta Lynch’s Confirmation Moves Forward Despite Lingering Questions About HSBC Scandal
Despite criticism for her decision not to jail the perpetrators of a controversial white-collar crime, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Loretta Lynch this morning to be the next U.S. attorney general, clearing the way for a full Senate vote. In a 12-8 vote, Lynch received unanimous support from the nine Democrats on the Judiciary Committee… -
opinion
Benghazi Scandal: New Pentagon Documents Show Military Knew It Was Islamic Terrorism
Close to 500 pages of Pentagon Benghazi-related documents obtained last week by the non-profit group Judicial Watch prove the U.S. military was operating on the assumption terrorists killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on the night of Sept. 11, 2012. The papers confirm statements about the nature of the attack to congressional…