Investigators said Thursday they have recovered 32,000 emails in backup tapes related to the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative organizations.

Though they don’t know how many of them are new, they told a congressional oversight committee that IRS employees had not asked computer technicians for the tapes, as directed by a subpoena from House oversight and other investigating committees.

That admission was in direct contradiction to earlier testimony of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

“It looks like we’ve been lied to, or at least misled,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. at a congressional hearing Thursday evening,

IRS Deputy Inspector General Timothy Camus, who testified alongside Inspector General J. Russell George, said his organization was investigating possible criminal activity. He did not elaborate, other than to suggest a key factor is whether documents were intentionally withheld.

The emails were to and from Lois Lerner, who used to head the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status. Last June, the IRS told Congress it had lost an unknown number of Lerner’s email when her computer hard drive crashed in 2011.

At the time, IRS officials said the emails could not be recovered. But Camus said investigators recovered thousands of emails from old computer tapes used to back up the agency’s email system, though he said he believed some tapes had been erased.

“We recovered quite a number of emails, but until we compare those to what’s already been produced we don’t know if they’re new emails,” Camus told the House Oversight Committee.

Neither Camus nor George would describe the contents of any of the emails at Thursday’s hearing.

The IRS says it has already produced 78,000 Lerner emails, many of which have been made public by congressional investigators.

Camus said it took investigators two weeks to locate the computer tapes that contained Lerner’s emails. He said it took technicians about four months to find Lerner’s emails on the tapes.

Several Oversight committee members questioned how hard the IRS tried to produce the emails, given how quickly independent investigators found them.

“We have been patient. We have asked, we have issued subpoenas, we have held hearings,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the Oversight Committee. “It’s just shocking me that you start, two weeks later you’re able to find the emails.”

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., questioned the significance of the recovered emails in an exchange with Camus.

“So as I understand it from your testimony here today, you are unable to confirm whether there are any, to use your own words, new emails, right?” she asked Camus.

“That is correct,” Camus replied.

Maloney: “So what’s before us may be material you already have, right?”

Camus: “That is correct”

Maloney. “So may I ask, why are we here?”

The IRS issued a statement saying the agency “has been and remains committed to cooperating fully with the congressional oversight investigations. The IRS continues to work diligently with Congress as well as support the review by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.”

The IRS estimated it has spent $20 million responding to congressional inquiries, generating more than one million pages of documents and providing agency officials to testify at 27 congressional hearings.

The inspector general set off a firestorm in May 2013 with an audit that said IRS agents improperly singled out Tea Party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Several hundred groups had their applications delayed for a year or more. Some were asked inappropriate questions about donors and group activities, the inspector general’s report said.

The week before George’s report, Lerner publicly apologized on behalf of the agency. After the report, much of the agency’s top leadership was forced to retire or resign, including Lerner. The Justice Department and several congressional committees launched investigations.

Lerner’s lost emails prompted a new round of scrutiny by Congress, and a new investigation by the inspector general’s office.

Lerner emerged as a central figure in the controversy after she refused to answer questions at two House Oversight hearings, invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself at both hearings. At the first hearing, Lerner made a statement saying she had done nothing wrong.

Last year, the House voted mostly along party lines to hold her in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at the hearings.

Fox News’ Doug McKelway and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson opened the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday morning with a professorial speech that slammed liberal government programs and policies, previewing themes of a potential 2016 presidential bid.

“It really is not compassionate to pat people on the head and say, ‘There there, you poor little thing. I’m going to take care of all of your needs,’ ” he told the crowd.

“That’s not compassion, that’s the opposite of compassion. It’s making people dependent. What real compassion is, is using our intellect to find ways to allow those people to climb out of dependency and realize the American dream.”

Carson added during the segment’s brief question-and-answer period that he’s “not interested in getting rid of the safety net,” but instead “interested in getting rid of dependency.”

The former neurosurgeon ticked off a laundry list of conservative ideas including abolishing the IRS, protecting gun rights, and limiting government’s involvement in healthcare and education, with each getting increasing applause from the friendly crowd.

“I’m not ready for Hillary, but what am I ready for?” he asked, chiding assumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“I’m ready for a country that puts our Constitution on the top shelf, every part of it.”

He also spoke about his healthcare expertise, warning that Republicans need to come up with a strong alternative to the Affordable Care Act before the party works to repeal it. And he also showed support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of his controversial speech to Congress next week.

While Carson has never held elected office, he rose to prominence within the conservative movement with a passionate speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013. He’s performed well in national polling of a hypothetical 2016 field — a Real Clear Politics average of those polls has Carson in fourth place.

His CPAC speech is the first in the annual three-day event filled with speeches from conservative politicians and potential presidential hopefuls. The event is seen as an important launching point for likely presidential candidates looking to make inroads with the party’s base.

By Ben Kamisar

The White House has notified the Senate that President Obama has vetoed legislation authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline.

ORIGINAL STORY … 

President Obama, who for six years signed almost every bill that landed on his desk, is preparing to open a new phase of his presidency — the veto — as Congress on Tuesday sent him legislation authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Senate sent the bill to Obama on Tuesday morning.

To date, Obama has issued just two vetoes, fewer than any U.S. president since the 19th century. By contrast, in just one term, President George H.W. Bush issued 44.

But Obama’s sparing use of the veto is expected to change. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the president will veto the Keystone legislation later Tuesday, despite it passing with bipartisan support.

And with Republicans now in control of Congress, their efforts to chip away at the president’s health care law and other legislative accomplishments are just as likely to be met with Obama’s veto pen.

The question, for the Keystone and other bills, will be whether House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can muster the votes to override.

In a joint op-ed in USA Today on Tuesday, they accused the president of playing “politics” with his expected Keystone veto.

“The allure of appeasing environmental extremists may be too powerful for the president to ignore. But the president is sadly mistaken if he thinks vetoing this bill will end this fight,” they wrote. “Far from it. We are just getting started.”

So far, congressional leaders have not demonstrated they have the votes to override, which takes a two-thirds majority in both chambers.

The Keystone bill got 62 yeas in the Senate, but they would need 67 to override. In the House, the bill got 270 votes — but they would need 281 to override.

It remains unclear whether moderate lawmakers could be swayed to switch in the coming weeks.

To date, Obama rarely has used the veto in part because Democrats for six years controlled at least one chamber in Congress — acting as a buffer to prevent unwanted bills from ever reaching the president’s desk. That buffer is now gone.

A look back at past presidencies, where control of the White House and Congress was split during at least one point, shows a veto bonanza.

In the Clinton presidency, the president issued 37 vetoes in his two terms. President Ronald Reagan issued 78. President George W. Bush issued 12.

Not since the Warren G. Harding administration has the number of vetoes been in the single digits; Harding issued six.

The Keystone bill is as contentious an issue as any for Obama to fire his first veto shot of the new Congress.

First proposed in 2008, the Keystone pipeline would connect Canada’s tar sands to Gulf Coast refineries.

The White House has said repeatedly it will wait to make its decision about whether to let the project go forward until after a State Department review. It regards the legislation as circumventing that process.

When the bill reaches the president’s desk, it will start a constitutional 10-day “clock” by which the president must either sign or veto the legislation.

The White House has indicated Obama will quickly veto, without much “drama or fanfare.”

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Following 3 months of deliberation by the Grand Jury, Ferguson Police Department Officer Darren Wilson WILL NOT BE INDICTED for shooting Michael Brown on August 9 in the line of duty.

For more than 3 months minorities have been wrecking violence on the community of Ferguson, MO, threatening to level the city if Officer Wilson is not indicted.

New Black Panther members were arrested by FBI agents Friday evening for plotting to set off explosives in the aftermath of a Grand Jury decision.

The original story coming out of Ferguson was that unarmed black youth Michael Brown was gunned down, shot in the back, by white officer Darren Wilson. Then, it was revealed that Michael Brown and his colleague had just robbed a grocery store, and he was acting in a violent manner. See our story of August 23, The Real Michael Brown–No Gentle Giant.

As evidence was presented to the Grand Jury, witnesses confirmed the officer’s version of the facts, that Michael Brown attacked the officer in his patrol car, and tried to shoot him with his own police pistol, resulting in a gunshot wound to Michael Brown. Mr. Brown then charged the officer, receiving multiple gunshot wounds, and died at the scene of the crime.

Well-known race-baiters, race agitators and anarchists have been stirring up racial unrest in the city since the shooting, attempting to convince black citizens that the shooting of Michael Brown was unjustified, ignoring all of the evidence that Mr. Brown had attacked the police officer and injured him badly, attempting to murder him.

FederalistPress.com has recently called upon Attorney General Eric Holder, one who stirred up the racial aspects of the case, to be the one to announce the Grand Jury’s decision, to assure the black community that the decision is based on the truth, and not on racial prejudice. see our article of November 18, OPINION: Holder Should Deliver Furguson Grand Jury News.

The National Guard is standing by for riots and looting.

PUBLIUS

LOS ANGELES –  Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, facing up to two years in prison after pleading guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws, will not be spending time behind bars.

Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan sentenced D’Souza on Tuesday to five years of probation, a $30,000 fine, and eight month in a San Diego “community confinement center” where he will undergo “therapeutic counseling.”

Such a center typically involves a “residence in a halfway house, restitution center, community treatment center, mental health facility, alcohol or drug rehabilitation center, or other community facility.”

After his indictment in January, D’Souza argued that he was being unfairly targeted by the government due to his politics and criticism of the Obama administration, which he highlighted in his 2012 book and documentary “2016.” However, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office claimed that his actions were “serious and strikes at the heart of our federal election system” and maintained a push for 16 months prison time.

D’Souza was charged with illegally organizing for two people to each make $10,000 campaign donations to Wendy E. Long, a friend from his days at Dartmouth College. He pled guilty to the charges in May.

Despite the charge and his claims of being singled out over political points of view, D’Souza went ahead with publishing a new book and releasing the documentary “America: Imagine the World Without Her” over the summer.

By Hollie McKay / Follow @holliesmckay on Twitter.

Federalist Press online news service and political commentary celebrates its first year online today, May 15, 2013.

Federalist Press celebrated its 150,000th online visitor just a few days ago, marking a major milestone for the young online news service.

We thank all of our loyal readers who have contributed, commented and supported us in this service, and made our success possible.

Federalist Press looks forward to another banner year, and pledges itself to bringing you the most important news and analysis available.

Thank you!

PUBLIUS