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Report: IRS targeting went beyond Tea Party
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Seattle Times (One of Seattle's leading newspapers)
Posted: May 21st, 2013
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2020975214_irsteapa...
The Internal Revenue Services special scrutiny of small-government groups applying for tax-exempt status went beyond keyword hunts for organizations with Tea Party or patriot in their names, to a more overtly ideological search for applicants seeking to make America a better place to live or criticize how the country is being run, according to a part of an inspector generals report that was given to Congress. The head of the division on tax-exempt organizations, Lois Lerner, was briefed on the effort in June 2011, seemingly contradicting her assertion on Friday that she learned of the effort from the press. But she seemed to work hard to rein in the focus on conservatives and change it to a look at any political advocacy group of any stripe seeking tax exemptions. The appendix of the inspector generals report ... chronicles the extent to which the IRSs exempt organizations division kept redefining what sort of social welfare groups it should single out for extra attention since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That decision allowed corporations and labor unions to raise and spend unlimited sums on elections as well as register for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)4 of the tax code, as long as their primary purpose did not consist of targeting electoral candidates. On June 29, 2011, according to the documents, IRS staffers held a briefing with Lerner in which they described giving special attention to instances where statements in the case file criticize how the country is being run.
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