“Despite repeated attempts to conflate the issues and downplay the IRS’s treatment of conservative-oriented applications, the facts are clear that the IRS systematically processed conservative-oriented applications in a wholly disparate and unique manner,” the investigators conclude. “The treatment received by Tea Party applicants was unprecedented for tax-exempt applicants engaged in political activity.” The latest report is particularly detailed in its look at Lois G. Lerner, the former head of the division charged with scrutinizing tax-exempt applications. Investigators traced a pattern of antipathy toward nonprofit organizations being able to take part in political activity beginning with a 2010 speech at Duke University, where the committee said she was “echoing” Mr. Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court. She said the court case “dealt a huge blow, overturning a 100-year-old precedent” — a legal reading that analysts have disputed — and indicated she would like to “fix the problem,” though she said the IRS wasn’t set up to do that. A day after Ms. Lerner’s Duke speech, a senior IRS official circulated a press release from Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, urging the IRS to investigate political spending by Crossroads GPS, a group associated with former George W. Bush political strategist Karl Rove. Read more: washingtontimes/news/2013/sep/17/report-irs-staff-acutely-aware-tea-party-antipathy/?page=2#ixzz2fFpmhlwE Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 14:25:14 +0000
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