IRS Admits Targeting Conservative Groups During 2012 Election

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Pastor Dewey Moede
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The Internal Revenue Service on Friday acknowledged that it flagged political groups with “tea party” or patriot” in their names for special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status, an admission that is fueling long-held suspicions among conservatives that the agency has been singling them out for unfair treatment.

The IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups, Lois Lerner, said the actions, though not motivated by partisan concerns, were wrong, and she apologized twice on Friday.

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What the IRS’s big admission means

What the IRS's big admission means

 

The Internal Revenue Service dropped a bombshell on the political world Friday morning.

She said that between 2010 and 2012, about 75 of these groups were selected for special scrutiny as part of a broader review of political advocacy organizations that were seeking tax-exempt status. Front-line IRS employees working in the tax-exempt unit in Cincinnati selected groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names, she said, as a shorthand because of the proliferation of these groups in recent years.
The employees also requested donor lists from some of the groups and sent questionnaires seeking overly broad information, Lerner acknowledged.“That’s absolutely inappropriate and not the way we ought to do things,” Lerner said in a briefing with reporters. “They didn’t do it out of any political bias.”

Lerner would not say whether any of the IRS employees involved have been disciplined, but she said that new policies have been put in place to prohibit this kind of screening and said that since then no groups have their applications rejected as part of the process.

The IRS apology did not mollify either conservative political groups or Republican lawmakers, who have been warning for over a year about unfair treatment from the agency.

“I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not underway at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday. “An apology won’t put this issue to rest.”

One of the nation’s largest tea party groups, the Tea Party Patriots, said it rejected the IRS’s explanation and demanded the resignations of all officials involved. The group also called on President Obama to apologize for ignoring its groups’ concerns.

“The IRS has demonstrated the most disturbing, illegal and outrageous abuse of government power,” said Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots. “This deliberate targeting and harassment of tea party groups reaches a new low in illegal government activity and overreach.”

The IRS, part of the Treasury Department, operates as an independent agency. Lerner said she has had no contact with administration officials over the issue. White House and Treasury officials had no immediate comment on Friday.

The disclosure comes after more than a year of tense debate about the tax status of conservative political groups. Tea party groups and other conservative organizations have said they have been the subject of inappropriate screening by the IRS, prompting formal complaints by Republican lawmakers.

 

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