IRS Accused of Revenge-Targeting Conservative Group That Exposed Biden Admin Nominees

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington, on Oct. 16, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been accused of being politically weaponized by engaging in a “deliberate attempt to punish and suppress” a conservative watchdog whose activities led to some of President Joe Biden’s nominees to senior administrative roles withdrawing their candidacies.

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a non-profit organization dedicated to scrutinizing public leaders and institutions, is under scrutiny itself as the IRS examines its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, according to a letter from the IRS to the AAF obtained by The Epoch Times.

The IRS has requested extensive documents from AAF, including all external communications related to its activities.

AAF President Tom Jones believes this move by the IRS is a deliberate politically-motivated crackdown against the organization, in part as retaliation for the watchdog’s efforts to draw the public’s attention to the radicalism of some of President Biden’s administrative nominees that led their nominations to fail.

“This sudden request by the IRS is not random,” Mr. Jones said in a statement. The fact that the IRS is demanding records from the group that relate to current public elected officials is “clearly a sign that they are targeting our research and education activities,” he added.

“It’s a deliberate attempt to punish and suppress AAF’s activities. It is surely no coincidence that AAF—the very organization that exposed the weaponization of the IRS—is now the target of it,” Mr. Jones added.

The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

Spotlighting Biden Nominees

The watchdog has a history of putting President Biden’s various nominees under the microscope, bringing public attention to some statements and circumstances the group said were questionable, while taking credit for the individuals’ eventual decisions to withdraw their candidacies.

For instance, the watchdog ran billboards, newspaper ads, and digital ads informing the American public about President Biden’s FCC chair nominee Gigi Sohn, who ended up pulling her nomination.

Mr. Jones said in an earlier statement that AAF had spent about a year and a half exposing Ms. Sohn to be “radical, extremist, hyper-partisan, with serious questions looming over her nomination,” in part due to what he described as her anti-police rhetoric.

The watchdog also took a critical stance on the nomination of Ann Carlson for the position of National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator, with the group citing her “radical” statements and questioning her finances.

“Carlson shamelessly called for California-style leadership, regulations on Americans’ appliances, more activist lawsuits against energy companies, and demanded higher gas prices for everyday Americans while literally being invested in oil and gas,” the group wrote in a press release after Ms. Carlson announced she had withdrawn her candidacy.

AAF also revealed that a Democrat lawmaker—Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)—had pressured the IRS to investigate the conservative organization Turning Point USA, according to 176 pages of correspondence (pdf) that AAF obtained and released to the public last year. This included asking the IRS to revoke Turning Point USA’s tax-exempt status because it hosted a big event without masking or social distancing during the pandemic.

Mr. Whitehouse also called on the IRS to target the tax-exempt status of AAF partner organization the Conservative Partnership Institute, which the Democrat lawmaker’s office said was part of a “right-wing dark-money network seeking to undermine the future of democratic elections in the United States” and was using its activities to help the Republican Party.

‘Scorn’ Heaped On the IRS

Attorney Cleta Mitchell compared the IRS audit of AAF to the agency’s unfair targeting of conservative groups during the Obama presidency.

“As the attorney for many conservative, tea party groups targeted and harassed by the Obama IRS a decade ago, this certainly smacks of the exact same tactics used by the IRS then ... and apparently being used again now against AAF,” Ms. Mitchell said in a statement.

“Before the IRS starts down this road again, it would be worth remembering the scorn heaped upon it the last time it allowed itself to be used as a pawn by a liberal  in the White House,” she added.

In 2017, the IRS ended up admitting that it was wrong when it based screenings of the groups’ applications for tax-exempt status on their names, which included words like “Tea Party” or “patriots” on application forms. The IRS also acknowledged that it had acted inappropriately when it subjected the groups to increased scrutiny and delays, while demanding unnecessary information from them.

Depending on the type of exemption sought, groups applying for tax-exempt status under federal law may engage in limited amounts of political activity. Some experts have said that this fact—along with vague rules—can make it difficult for IRS agents to tell which groups overstep and become ineligible for exemption.

The AAF said that the latest action by the IRS is part of a pattern of federal agencies being “weaponized” under the Biden administration. The watchdog gave several examples, like the infamous October 2021 memo by Attorney General Merrick Garland that instructed the FBI to keep tabs on parents protesting leftist school policies or a January 2023 FBI memo discussing how to spy on Catholics.

“We demand that this abuses is put to an end at once,” Mr. Jones said in a statement. “Our Constitution and Declaration of Independence guarantee our God-given right to speak the truth about the powerful without being punished and harassed.”