New documents
confirmed that the IRS targeted individual donors giving to those causes who
aligned with lists of conservative tax-exempt organizations. Not only did the
IRS use the donor lists of tax-exempt organizations for audits, but also the
documents highlight that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may have come under “high
scrutiny.” The IRS would not produce the documents until required by a Freedom
of Information lawsuit, Judicial
Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:15-cv-00220).
Monday, July 27, 2015
IRS Targets Conservatives with No Consequence
July 22nd, Judicial Watch announced,
The documents show that the IRS had
not enforced the gift tax since 1982. But then, in February 2011, at least five
donors of an unnamed organization were audited.
The press release further explained,
Crossroads GPS, associated with
Republican Karl Rove, was specifically referenced by IRS officials in the
context of applying the gift tax. Seemingly in response to the Crossroads
focus, on April 20, IRS attorney Lorraine Gardner emails a 501(c)(4) donor list
to former Branch Chief in the IRS’ Office of the Chief Counsel James Hogan.
Later, this information is apparently shared with IRS Estate Gift and Policy
Manager Lisa Piehl while Gardner seeks “information about any of the donors.”
And House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz stated,
You have political targeting that
is factual at this point. There are no ifs, ands or buts. You had groups within
the IRS who were politically targeting conservatives and impeding their First
Amendment rights.
In 2013, IRS official Lois Lerner pled the Fifth before the
House Oversight Committee regarding the IRS targeting scandal. Although Lerner
met with the Department of Justice to determine how to prosecute conservative
groups, she met no consequences for turning this agency into a political
weapon. No one was fired as a result of the targeting and former Oversight
Committee Chairman Darrel Issa says
the IRS is still engaging in the same bad behavior.
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