7. No one was singled out. The IRS net for possibly political organizations caught some 300 applications. Of these, no more than a third were "conservative" or "tea party" or "right-wing." The rest were something else, including "liberal" and "left-wing." None of the so-called conservative group applications were denied. Some were delayed, deservedly so, but a group can function as a 501(c)(4) with an application pending, so it's hard to see how much damage a delay would do, if any.
8. At least some of the groups on the right were clearly partisan and perhaps broke the law. The New York Times of May 26 reports in a story wrongly headlined "Groups Targeted by I.R.S. Tested Rules on Politics" describes several tax exempt groups that spent money on partisan activities.
9. One of the groups, Emerge America, was granted 501(c)(4) status in 2006 in order to train women to run for elected office. In 2012, when an IRS review showed that Emerge America was training only Democratic candidates, the IRS revoked the group's tax exempt status.
10. Another group calling itself "CVFC 501(c)(4)" on its application in 2010 gave its address as the same as "Combat Veterans for Congress PAC" (political action committee). Perhaps PAC triggered a closer look. While awaiting an IRS decision, CVFC spent almost $8,000 on radio ads for a Republican candidate. CVFC omitted this expenditure from its 2010 tax return. On a questionnaire asking if it had engaged directly or indirectly in political activity on behalf of a candidate, CVFC checked "NO."
NBC News Reporting Achieves Incompetence and Partisanship
In a report on May 29, "Open Channel Investigative reporting from NBC News" (bylined Lisa Myers, Rich Gardella, Talesha Reynolds) starts with a flat-out false headline: "IRS higher-ups requested info on conservative groups, letters show."
The story begins: "Additional scrutiny of conservative organizations' activities by the IRS did not solely originate in the agency's Cincinnati office, with requests for information coming from other offices and often bearing the signatures of higher-ups at the agency."
The letters don't show that. NBC provides two letters, and both come from and direct responses to the IRS Cincinnati office, although one letter also has an apparently hand-stamp signature for "Lois Lerner, Director, Exempt Organizations" and no address other than Cincinnati. The letters comprise nine pages, of which five pages are form letters. Each of the applicants also received a personal, two-page request for additional information to justify tax exempt status.
The IRS asked Ohio Liberty Council Group in March 2012 to update a two year old filing, and to describe its planned activities, public events, membership recruitment, political activity, and lobbying -- if any.
The IRS asked Linchpins of Liberty if they had adopted bylaws or chosen a board of directors. The IRS also wanted to know, among other things, about the organizations income and expenses, its loan agreements and other contracts, and whether its activities wound go beyond selling a book ("Linchpins of Liberty") written by its president. NBC fails to note that this isn't a response to a relevant 501(c)(4) application, but the IRS answer on May 6 to an application for the more stringent 501(c)(3) tax exempt status.
If You Hate Government, Do You Hate It More When It Does Due Diligence?
Nothing in these two letters suggests anything more than due diligence by the IRS in protecting public policy and assets. The information in the story came to NBC mostly from attorneys representing the complaining groups. NBC provides no reliable, independent support for the opinions of its biased sources, even though it reports those opinions as more or less fact.
The IRS story went off the tracks of fact the moment Lois Lerner planted a question with a reporter at an American Bar Association conference on May 10. In answer to the reporter's posing of Lerner's question, Lerner answered this way, as reported by Associated Press (no transcript appears to be available):
"The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was 'inappropriate' targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
"IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words 'tea party' or 'patriot' in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said."
For whatever reason, the AP makes the IRS apology institutional even though it comes from a mid-level IRS manager ratting out people she was supposed to be managing. The news catches her superiors in the IRS, as well as the White House, completely off guard. It also sets off a right-wing feeding frenzy, which the AP reports at length in the same story.
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