The Internal Revenue Service has opened an audit probe into the American Accountability Foundation’s tax-exempt status, which is a startling development. The cause? The group ventured to cover the contentious nominations of President Joe Biden. Discover the reasons for the unusual action that have sparked worries about government openness and free expression.
According to The Daily Caller, the IRS has requested access to the Foundation’s internal financial records and communications, including meeting minutes, published materials, and newsletters.
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The IRS specifically specified two things, which were:
“Correspondence files, emails, and information posted on a website that relates to current public elected officials.
Breakdown of the $65,000 paid in media fees and the specific issue(s) that were being addressed for each media fee that was paid.”
Biden is accused by a conservative nonprofit organization of conducting a retaliation probe against them. They say it’s due of a report from the foundation on Biden candidates who withdrew.
Declared AAF President Tom Jones.
“This sudden request by the IRS is not random. The IRS is demanding ‘[c]orrespondence files, emails and information posted on a website that relates to current public elected officials’ – clearly a sign that they are targeting our research and education activities. 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.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) was accused by the AAF of starting the probe against it in a statement that appeared as a pop-up on its website. “Because of our success in frustrating the liberal agenda, the Radical Left is coming after us now. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pressed the DOJ, IRS, and its 87,000 new IRS agents to target the American Accountability Foundation because we’re defending American rights—and winning. We’ve been hit with a politically motivated IRS investigation to slow us down, so that the Biden administration can continue to entrench its ideologues in office.”
In a message to X, the team clarified, “The American Accountability Foundation has exposed numerous Biden nominees, and it published emails showing that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., had encouraged the IRS to target conservative organizations, including AAF, for extra scrutiny and investigation.”
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In a statement sent by the group via email to the Daily Signal, Jones stated, “Senator Whitehouse has repeatedly called for the IRS to investigate AAF—by name. Attacking groups like ours has been a priority for Senator Whitehouse and it appears the Biden admin has heeded his calls”
In a phone conversation with The Daily Signal, IRS spokesperson Anthony Burke asserted that the agency doesn’t initiate audits for political motives. Says he, “Under the federal tax law, federal employees can neither confirm nor deny that a particular organization is or is not being audited. We’re precluded from disclosing tax return information.”
The 2013 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration disapproved of the Obama administration’s IRS Targeting Scandal, which garnered national notice.
The Director of Audits discovered, “The IRS used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions instead of indications of potential political campaign intervention.”
“Whether it is Gigi Sohn at the FCC, David Chipman at the ATF, Saule Omarova as Biden’s bank czar, there are numerous people who have been exposed because of AAF’s work,” Jones told the outlet
“Apparently, the administration has decided they want to stop that by weaponizing the IRS against us.”
As Tyler O’Neill, a Daily Signal writer, pointed out to X, “REMINDER: In 2017, the DOJ settled two IRS targeting cases, one involving the IRS paying $3.5M to 428 conservative groups who claimed they were targeted under the Obama admin.”
As Trending Politics revealed in July, Representatives David Schweikert (R-AZ) and Jason Smith (R-MO) requested answers after the IRS mass-shredded over 30 million papers in March 2021. The IRS is already under fire from the Republican-led House of Representatives.
