IRS Scandal: You don’t have to be conservative

A misnomer about the IRS scandal that first broke a year ago is that conservative tea party groups were the only ones targeted. Christian pro-life groups were included in the IRS “Be on the look out” (BOLO) list, as well as a pro-Israel organization.

IRS documents released by the House Ways and Means Committee last summer contained a category, created by IRS employees, entitled “Occupied Territory Advocacy.” The category for “Occupied Territory Advocacy” had only one organization referred to it, and the notice to IRS inspectors to “Be on the look out” for groups under this category was sent on Aug. 10, 2010, just days after Z STREET’s file was first reviewed.

This week the IRS scandal heated up again, although most of the mainstream media working to protect the administration from embarrassment ignored the story.

Judicial Watch, a government watchdog organization, obtained documents that may turn out to be the “smoking gun” for the IRS scandal involving the targeting of groups applying for 501(C)(3) status which had views in conflict with the Administration. 

Just as they did with the recent Ben Rhodes email which advanced the investigation of the Benghazi scandal, Judicial Watch received these documents by winning a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed after the IRS refused to answer four FOIA requests. 

An email string from February to 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.”

Another series of emails, these from July 2012, confirm that IRS Tea Party scrutiny was directed from Washington. On July 6, 2010, Holly Paz (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 “Rob” mentioned in the email is believed to be Rob Choi, then-Director of Rulings and Agreements in IRS’s Washington, DC, headquarters.

An email dated April 2, 2013, written by Lois Lerner:

“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 how the country is being run.”

The IRS scandal story should be important to everyone no matter what their political persuasion. Because this attempt to keep primarily conservative with a sprinkling of religious and Israel advocacy groups from supporting their causes strikes at the very heart of the freedom of expression our republic was founded upon and cannot be allowed to stand.

Columnist@TheJewishStar.com