Newly uncovered IRS documents show the agency flagged political groups based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about "anti-Obama rhetoric," inflammatory language and "emotional" statements made by non-profits seeking tax-exempt status.
The internal 2011 documents, obtained by USA TODAY, list 162 groups by name, with comments by Internal Revenue Service lawyers in Washington raising issues about their political, lobbying and advocacy activities. In 21 cases, those activities were characterized as "propaganda."
The first email, a February 1, 2011, message to among others Obama donor and fellow IRS executive Holly Paz, proclaims: Tea Party matter very dangerous. This could be the vehicle to go to court on the issue over whether Citizens United overturning the ban on corporate spending applies to tax exempt rules . . . Cincy should probably NOT have these cases Holly please see what they have please [sic].
IRS employees say they were made "acutely" aware as far back as 2010 that President Obama wanted to go after tea party and other conservative groups, the Washington Times reports. Not wanting to disappoint, they did what they thought they were supposed to do.
A May report by the IRS inspector general said the agency gave extra scrutiny to 298 groups when they applied for tax exempt status from the spring of 2010 to the spring of 2012. The vast majority of the groups 248 were conservative, while 29 were liberal and 21 were neither, according to an analysis by the Republican staff of the House Ways and Means Committee.Of the 111 conservative groups that had their applications approved, 38 were flagged for additional monitoring, according to the staff review. Of the 20 liberal groups that had their applications approved, seven were flagged for additional monitoring.
This entry was published Fri Sep 20 05:44:26 CDT 2013 by TriggerFinger and last updated 2013-09-20 05:44:26.0. [Tweet]
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