JUDICIAL WATCH
(
Washington, DC) - Judicial Watch today released a new batch of
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents revealing
that its handling of Tea Party applications was directed out of the
agency's headquarters in Washington, DC. The documents also show
extensive pressure on the IRS by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) to shut down
conservative-leaning tax-exempt organizations. The IRS' emails by Lois
Lerner detail her misleading explanations to investigators about the
targeting of Tea Party organizations.
The documents came in response to an October 2013 Judicial Watch
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the agency refused
to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May 2013 (
Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:13-cv-01559)).
One key email string from
July 2012
confirms that IRS Tea Party scrutiny was directed from Washington, DC.
On July 6, 2010, Holly Paz (the former Director of the IRS Rulings and
Agreements Division and current Manager of Exempt Organizations
Guidance) asks IRS lawyer Steven Grodnitzky "to let Cindy and Sharon
know how we have been handling Tea Party applications in the last few
months." Cindy Thomas is the former director of the IRS Exempt
Organizations office in Cincinnati and Sharon Camarillo was a Senior
Manager in their Los Angeles office. Grodnitzky, a top lawyer in the
Exempt Organization Technical unit (EOT) in Washington, DC, responds:
EOT is working the Tea party applications in coordination with
Cincy. We are developing a few applications here in DC and providing
copies of our development letters with the agent to use as examples in
the development of their cases. Chip Hull [another lawyer in IRS
headquarters] is working these cases in EOT and working with the agent
in Cincy, so any communication should include him as well. Because the
Tea party applications are the subject of an SCR [Sensitive Case
Report], we cannot resolve any of the cases without coordinating with
Rob.
The reference to Rob is believed to be Rob Choi, then-Director of Rulings and Agreements in IRS's Washington, DC, headquarters.
Another email string from
February - March 2010
includes a message from a California EO Determinations manager
discussing a Tea Party application "currently being held in the
Screening group." The manager urges, "Please let ‘Washington' know about
this potentially embarrassing political case involving a ‘Tea Party'
organization. Recent media attention to this type of organization
indicates to me that this is a ‘high profile' case." A co-worker
responds: "I think sending it up here [DC] is a good idea given the
potential for media interest." As with Ben Rhodes'
Benghazi-related talking points email, Judicial Watch obtained a more complete version of this IRS email chain than was provided to a
congressional committee.
The Judicial Watch documents also contain email correspondence to internal IRS investigators from Lerner, dated
April 2, 2013, that tries to explain the "Be on the Lookout" (BOLO) criteria used to select organizations for screening and scrutiny:
Because the BOLO only contained a brief reference to "Organizations
involved with the Tea Party movement applying for exemption under
501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4)" in June 2011, the EO Determinations manager
asked the manager of the screening group, John Shafer [IRS Cincinnati
field office manager], what criteria were being used to label cases as
"tea party " cases. ("Do the applications specify/state ‘ tea party'?
If not, how do we know applicant is involved with the tea party
movement?") The screening group manager asked his employees how they
were applying the BOLO's short -hand reference to "tea party." His
employees responded that they were including organizations meeting any
of the following criteria as falling within the BOLO's reference to
"tea party" organizations: "1. ‘Tea Party', ‘Patriots' or '9/12
Project' is referenced in the case file. 2. Issues include government
spending, government debt and taxes. 3. Educate the public through
advocacy/legislative activities to make America a better place to live.
4. Statements in the case file that are critical of the how the
country is being run. . . "
So, we believe we have provided information that shows that no one
in EO "developed" the criteria. Rather, staff used their own
interpretations of the brief reference to "organizations involved with
the Tea Party movement," which was what was on the BOLO list.
Lerner omits that her office was "developing" the applications for all Tea Party groups.
The IRS documents also include a presentation entitled "
Heightened Awareness Issues"
with a red and orange "Alert" symbol identifying the "emerging issues"
that trigger scrutiny for organizations seeking tax-exempt status.
Page six of the presentation focuses on the Tea Party organizations
due, in part, to the fact that these groups had become a "Relevant
Subject in Today's Media."
A series of letters between
Senator Levin (D-MI),
chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations, and top IRS officials
throughout 2012 discuss how to target conservative groups the senator
claimed were "engaged in political activities." In response to a Levin
March 30 letter citing the "
urgency of the issue," then-Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller assured the senator that IRS regulations were flexible enough to allow IRS agents to "
prepare individualized questions and requests" for select 501(c)(4) organizations.
The newly released IRS documents contain several letters and emails
revealing an intense effort by Levin and IRS officials to determine
what, if any, existing IRS policies could be used to revoke the
nonprofit exemptions of active conservative groups and deny exemptions
to new applicants. In a
July 30, 2012,
letter, Levin singles out 12 groups he wants investigated for
"political activity." Of the groups - which include the Club for Growth,
Americans for Tax Reform, the 60 Plus Association, and the Susan B.
Anthony List - only one, Priorities USA, is notably left-leaning.
As the 2012 presidential election drew nearer, Levin sent a series of
letters to the IRS intensifying his campaign against predominantly
conservative nonprofit groups:
- September 27, 2012:
Levin asks for copies of the answers to IRS exemption application
question 15 - a question about planned political expenditures - from
four specific groups: Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies,
Priorities USA, Americans for Prosperity, and Patriot Majority USA.
- October 17, 2012:
Miller informs Levin, "As discussed in our previous responses dated
June 4, 2012, and August 24, 2012, the IRS cannot legally disclose
whether the organizations on your list have applied for tax exemptions
unless and until such application is approved." Miller, however, then
informs Levin that Americans for Prosperity and Patriot Majority have
been approved, but the IRS has no records for Crossroads and Priorities
USA.
- October 23, 2012:
Levin writes to again express his dissatisfaction with the IRS
handling of "social welfare" (501(c)(4) organizations insisting that
IRS guidance "misinterprets the law" by allowing any political
activity. He again demands an answer as to whether the four
organizations he listed in his previous letter were primarily engaged
in the promotion of social welfare. He also seeks copies of tax exempt
revocation letters sent due to c4 political activities, as well as
statistics on how many c4s have been notified that they may be in
violation due to political activities.
In perhaps the most revealing letter from the IRS to Levin, Miller on
June 4, 2012,
takes 16 pages to explain to the senator what IRS regulations and
policies may and may not be used to evaluate political groups and
assures him that the agency has considerable leeway in picking and
choosing which groups would be subject to additional scrutiny:
There is no standard questionnaire used to obtain information about
political activities. Although there is a template development letter
that describes the general information on the case development process,
the letter does not specify the information to be requested from any
particular organization ... Consequently, revenue agents prepare
individualized questions and requests for documents relevant to the
application. . .
A May 14, 2013,
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report
revealed that the IRS had singled out groups with conservative-sounding
terms such as "patriot" and "Tea Party" in their titles when applying
for tax-exempt status. The TIGTA probe determined that "Early in
Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using inappropriate criteria to
identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status (e.g., lists of
past and future donors)." The illegal IRS reviews continued for more
than 18 months and "delayed processing of targeted groups applications"
preparing for the 2012 presidential election.
"These new documents show that officials in the IRS headquarters were
responsible for the illegal delays of Tea Party applications," stated
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "It is disturbing to see Lois
Lerner mislead the IRS' internal investigators about her office's Tea
Party targeting. These documents also confirm the unprecedented
pressure from congressional Democrats to go after President Obama's
political opponents. The IRS scandal has now ensnared Congress."
In mid-April, Judicial Watch released
a batch of IRS documents
(produced earlier in this litigation) revealing that Lerner had
communicated with the Department of Justice about whether it was
possible to criminally prosecute certain tax-exempt entities.
Judicial Watch, Inc.,
a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, promotes
transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and
the law. Through its educational endeavors, Judicial Watch advocates
high standards of ethics and morality in our nation's public life and
seeks to ensure that political and judicial officials do not abuse the
powers entrusted to them by the American people. Judicial Watch
fulfills its educational mission through litigation, investigations,
and public outreach.
No comments:
Post a Comment