Washington D.C. IRS Office Continued Targeting Conservative Groups Last Month

The IRS’s spin continues to collapse.  First they claimed the decision to target conservative groups came from low-level employees in one office.  But yesterday we released documents proving that IRS inquiries came from offices in California (Laguna Niguel and El Monte), Ohio, and Washington, D.C.

But it gets worse. 

The IRS also claims it abandoned the probes, but the abuse is ongoing.  This letter arrived last month, from a “tax law specialist” in D.C. regarding an Albuquerque tea party group we represent. 

Aside from the continued targeting the letter is noteworthy for a number of other reasons.  First, the secrecy of the deliberations is troubling.  The tax law specialist indicates that she has a recommendation, but won’t say what it is – stating that it’s not “policy” to do so.  Second, the IRS won’t give any timetable for a decision, leaving the group in limbo since – in this case – 2011.  In fact, the group submitted its responses to the IRS’s voluminous document requests more than a year ago, in January 2012, and this was the first IRS response.

Continued targeting, intolerable delays, and unacceptable secrecy – the IRS has not learned its lesson.