Treading on Us….

As reported Friday, a senior executive for the IRS (Lois Lerner) admitted that tea party and patriot groups had been inappropriately targeted for additional reviews, specifically regarding requests for non-profit tax status. These reviews contained requests for information that were intrusive and offensive in nature, further delaying non-profit status requests from being granted in a timely manner while costing tea party groups legal/preparation fees and a tremendous amount of administrative time to prepare responses.

As you may remember, Richmond Tea Party was one of those groups targeted (see HERE for refresher). This is a very dynamic issue that is developing rapidly. We are currently assessing our options and will take additional action as appropriate when more details are known.

Please see below for many links detailing what’s happening on this issue.

 

Update: Senior IRS officials evidently knew about the inappropriate reviews back in 2011, contradicting prior statements.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRS_POLITICAL_GROUPS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-11-19-11-24

Tea Party Patriots calls for congress to investigate:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/11/Exclusive-Tea-Party-Patriots-IRS-may-have-committed-crimes-must-be-substantive-congressional-hearings-to-investigate

Update 2: Was the IRS also targeting Jewish groups?

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/348013/irs-inquisition-update

Update 3: House Ways and Means Committee demands all documents from IRS containing “tea party”, “patriot”, or “conservative” by Wednesday, May 15th.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ways-and-means-irs-provide-all-communications-containing-words-tea-party-patriot-or

Associated Stories:

Richmond Tea Party background story:

https://www.richmondteaparty.com/press-release-irs-demanding-unreasonable-documentation-to-satisfy-rtps-tax-exempt-request/

• IRS letter 1: http://www.richmondteaparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IRS_letter_9.17.10.pdf

• IRS letter 2: http://www.richmondteaparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IRS-letter-1.23.12.pdf

Jamie Radtke calls for congressional investigation:

https://www.richmondteaparty.com/radtke-calls-for-congressional-investigation-into-irss-actions-towards-tea-party-patriot-groups/

AP News:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/irs-apologizes-targeting-conservative-groups

NetRightDaily:

http://netrightdaily.com/2013/05/irs-admits-to-targeting-conservative-groups-like-the-richmond-tea-party/

Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/irs-admits-targeting-conservatives-for-tax-scrutiny-in-2012-election/2013/05/10/3b6a0ada-b987-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPNE_p

American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) issues press release:

http://aclj.org/free-speech-2/aclj-calls-irs-apology-for-targeting-tea-party-groups-significant-victory-for-free-speech-and-freedom-of-association

Comments from Tea Party Patriots national group:

http://www.teapartypatriots.org/2013/05/irs-admits-targeting-tea-party-and-patriot-groups-for-harassment-in-2012-election/

Rep. Eric Cantor: House will investigate:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/10/Cantor-House-Will-Investigate-IRS-for-Targeting-Tea-Party-Groups

Sean Hannity: IRS Enemies List Exposed & Defined by Scottie Hughes & Jedediah Bila

Jay Sekulow with ACLJ:

RTP Responds in the Richmond Times-Dispatch

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/article_303b7ed6-bab9-11e2-bee6-0019bb30f31a.html

George Will Discusses the Issue – Akin to Nixon Impeachment Charges

RTP Executive Director Discusses Issue on CBS News

Panel Discussion about the IRS Story on WAMU 88.5 Radio
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/audio-player?nid=23358

RTP visits “On the Record” with Greta Van Susteren

RTP Discusses the IRS Controversy with CNN