Officials from the US Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday after confessing that the agency had targeted conservative political groups, putting them under extra scrutiny during the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election.
Organizations that used words including “tea party” or
“patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status were
flagged. Some were asked for their list of financial donors, a
flagrant violation of IRS policy, Lois Lerner, an IRS division
head, told the Associated Press.
“That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was
insensitive and it was inappropriate,” she said. “That’s not
how we go about selecting cases for further review. The IRS would
like to apologize for that.”
Approximately 75 groups were targeted, although none had their
tax-exempt status revoked, Lerner added. She reiterated that the
scheme was started by low-level employees in Cincinnati, Ohio and
that IRS higher-ups were not privy to what was happening at the
time.
“They didn’t do it because of any political bias,” Lerner
continued. “It was an error in judgment and it wasn’t
appropriate but that’s what they did. We’ve now corrected these
issues, and we don’t expect that any of these will be repeated
going forward.”
Tea Party groups and similarly-minded activists who were
outspoken in their disdain for US President Barack Obama complained
of mistreatment from the IRS before the election, when political
feelings are naturally heightened. Sal Russo, founder of the Tea
Party Express political action committee, told ABC News that though
his group was never harassed by the IRS, he did hear of government
resistance to the tax exemption requests.
“On our bus tours the local Tea Party groups were all
screaming about it,” Russo said. “It was so pronounced
around the country that it was obvious the Tea Party groups were
being targeted. Not unlike any bureaucracy, the first reaction is
to deny everything even when they don’t know the facts.”
He added that he was “glad they finally acknowledged what was
obvious to everyone else.”
Other leaders in the Tea Party, a right-wing anti-government
faction created in 2009 in reaction to government relief for
foreclosed-upon homeowners, were decidedly less
forgiving.
“It is suspicious that the activity of these ‘low-level
workers’ was unknown to IRS leadership at the time it
occurred,” Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea
Party Patriots, which bills itself as the biggest Tea Party group
in the US, told ABC. “President Obama must also apologize for
his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad
grassroots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make
concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens
again.”
One coincidence that’s fueled conspiracy theories is the IRS’
responsibility to enforce Obama’s
This article originally appeared on : RT