Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name as Health and Human Services secretary, The WSJ also reports that,
The IRS’s probe into EduCap is looking is looking into cash transactions involving Ms. Reynolds, the purchase of a $28 million corporate jet by EduCap, trips to Europe by Ms. Reynolds, and spending on gifts and luxuries, according to details disclosed in documents filed in a court case in Washington, D.C. The documents are exhibits in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit EduCap is pursuing against the IRS demanding the names of individuals whom the agency has interviewed for its investigation. The IRS is refusing to identify many of its sources, saying they fear legal retaliation by EduCap.
The IRS also is trying to determine why a former EduCap “security officer” made two cash deposits of $170,000 each into personal account of Ms. Reynolds at Riggs Bank in 2003, according to disclosures by the IRS in U.S. District Court. The former employee told the IRS in 2006 that he didn’t realize the money was going into Ms. Reynolds’ personal account, according to an agent’s notes filed with the court.
The Senate Finance Committee also is investigating EduCap.
EduCap describes itself on its Web site as a “non-profit education organization” with a mission of providing affordable college loans to students whose family incomes are too high to qualify for financial aid or federal student loan programs.
The IRS is probing whether EduCap’s spending for such things as the jet amount to an improper personal benefit to its executives under the tax laws governing not-for-profit organizations.
Earlier today Nancy Killefer, nominated by President Barack Obama to be the federal government’s first chief performance officer, also withdrew her nomination due to tax issues:
Ms. Killefer, 55 years old, failed to pay employment taxes on household help for a year and a half, the Associated Press reported. In 2005, the AP said, the District of Columbia filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay the unemployment compensation tax. The error was resolved five months later.
It remains to be seen whether the IRS will continue to prosecute Daschle to the full extent of the law, as they do “everyday folk”.
UPDATE
Tom Daschle Redefines Hypocrisy
The old Pontiac, while the limo was getting a lube?