bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Three years after the IRS admitted officials singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny, the tax-collecting agency has released a near-complete list of the organizations targeted.

And it numbers in the hundreds — for the first time showing the extent to which the agency slow-walked applications for tax-exempt status.

The new list shows a total of 426 organizations, far higher than what the Treasury Department’s inspector general believed there to be in May 2013, when he identified 298 groups.

The names span the gamut, covering well-known groups like Tea Party Patriots but also lower-profile local outfits like the Louisiana Campaign for Liberty, Patriots of Charleston, the Asheville Tea Party, Inc. and many more.

The Washington Times first reported on the list, which the IRS filed last month after being prodded by federal judges. The document was produced as part of a class-action lawsuit being led by Tea Party groups.

According to the Times, 60 of the groups' names contained the word “tea,” 33 contained the word “patriot,” eight used the word “Constitution” and 26 others had the word “liberty” in the title.

A lawyer representing NorCal Tea Party Patriots as part of the lawsuit said the list may have increased in number so dramatically since 2013 as the IRS targeted more liberal groups after the investigation began so as to try and soften the perception of bias.

“Based on these changes, which to date remain unexplained, a very real possibility — if not probability — exists that the IRS modified its targeting in light of the investigations, packing its own internal lists of targeted groups to support its preferred narrative, including by adding ideologically diverse groups,” Edward D. Greim told The Times.

Regardless of the backstory, a federal judge earlier this year scolded the IRS for allegedly holding up requests for information.

“The lawsuit has progressed as slowly as the underlying applications themselves: at every turn the IRS has resisted the plaintiffs’ requests for information regarding the IRS’s treatment of the plaintiff class, eventually to the open frustration of the district court,” Circuit Court Judge Raymond Kethledge said in a March ruling.

“Among the most serious allegations a federal court can address are that an Executive agency has targeted citizens for mistreatment based on their political views. No citizen—Republican or Democrat, socialist or libertarian—should be targeted or even have to fear being targeted on those grounds,” Kethledge said.

House Republicans ramped up pressure on the IRS in May, introducing a measure to censure IRS Commissioner John Koskinen -- and remove him from office without a pension.

Tea Party Patriots on Monday renewed their call for Koskinen's impeachment.


It's time to #ImpeachKoskinen for failing to comply with a subpoena for evidence. https://t.co/O7Rco8UTZz #TeaParty

— Tea Party Patriots (@TPPatriots) June 6, 2016
Fox News’ Doug McKelway contributed to this report.

Dummy Boy Loc: Michigan

...which offers a couple of other thoughts:

First, if the IRS is a de facto arm of the president's policies, then it must go...simply because the powers of the president don't include telling the IRS how to function. That is Congress's job.

If the only reason these organizations came into existence, if they did organize?....why not disobey the IRS and provide all of the evidence to hang them in court, such as, the paperwork they had to file to become a non-profit? Heck, a first year law student could defend that..and in the course of all of these court cases, it would have highlighted the problem long before it did. It's called lawful disobedience. When streets are closed down for festivals, don't cops still have the authority to issue citations for jaywalking? They don't suspend the law, they just ask the officers to understand that the street is closed. The IRS needs to be reminded that they are not a judicial arm of the government, and their behavior is a form of lawful disobedience. What a lost opportunity.