IRS scrutiny went beyond Tea Party

(by S.A. Miller, New York Post) – WASHINGTON – The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) [on Friday] admitted it had unjustly targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny during the 2012 presidential campaign, and officials offered an apology…. “That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive, and it was inappropriate,” said Lois Lerner, chief of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt division that went after the Tea Party. “The IRS would like to apologize for that,” she offered.

Lerner blamed the potentially illegal activity on low-level IRS agents who flagged tax filings that included words “Tea Party” or “patriot” to check for misuses of tax-exempt status.

But the IRS campaign to apply additional scrutiny to conservative groups went beyond targeting “Tea Party” and “patriot” groups to include those focused on government spending, the Constitution and several other broad areas. 

The additional guidelines created by the agency [IRS] were part of a timeline…from the Treasury Inspector General [IG] for Tax Administration, which is looking into the controversial IRS practice. New information suggests senior leaders were apprised of the effort as early as 2011 despite public denials from the top. 

Evidence that the IRS was flagging such groups in 2011 was included in a draft inspector general’s report obtained Saturday by news organizations and expected to be released in full later this week. 

That information seemingly contradicts public statements by IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who told congressional investigators in March 2011 that specific groups were not being targeted. 

The internal IG timeline shows a unit in the agency was looking at Tea Party and “patriot” groups dating back to early 2010. But it shows that list of criteria drastically expanding by the time a June 2011 briefing was held. It then included groups focused on government spending, government debt, taxes, and education on ways to “make America a better place to live.” It even flagged groups whose file included criticism of “how the country is being run.” 

By early 2012, the criteria were updated to include organizations involved in “limiting/expanding government,” education on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and social economic reform. 

The IRS agents even asked some groups to divulge lists of donors and members, which would usually be a violation of IRS policy. …

The…admission and apology by the IRS [did not appease] Tea Party leaders and top Republican lawmakers, who demanded a wide-ranging probe into Obama administration political dirty tricks.

“We reject a simple apology that does nothing to alleviate the danger of this happening again,” said Jenny Beth Martin, a leader of Tea Party Patriots, the country’s largest Tea Party organization. She demanded an apology from Obama and a full investigation. …

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky demanded that the White House open a government-wide review to root out “political thuggery.” “Make no mistake, an apology won’t put this issue to rest,” he said. “This kind of political thuggery has no place in our politics.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Congress will investigate and demanded to know what the Obama administration would do to hold accountable those responsible. “Have other federal agencies used government powers to attack Americans for partisan reasons?” asked Boehner.

The White House distanced itself from the wrongdoing. “The activity as described is inappropriate and needs to be thoroughly investigated and acted upon,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney. … He also released a statement saying: “If the inspector general finds that there were any rules broken or that conduct of government officials did not meet the standards required of them, the president expects that swift and appropriate steps will be taken to address any misconduct.” 

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, requested the IG investigation last year and suggested yesterday that the pending report prompted the IRS to admit the wrongdoing.

Issa vowed to “aggressively follow up on the IG report and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.”

A spokesman for the Treasury IG said that the release of the report had not been scheduled and no other details were available.

Reprinted here for educational purposes only.  May not be reproduced on other websites without permission from the New York Post. [Some of the information in this article was added from Associated Press reports.]