LA Times - IRS Targeted Conservative Groups, Official Says

By Wes Venteicher and Joseph Tanfani, LATimes.com

The Internal Revenue Service improperly singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny of their applications for nonprofit status, a top agency official said Friday, setting off calls for investigations into an organization already under fire for its handling of secret political spending by nonprofits.

Employees at the agency's Cincinnati nonprofits office, while screening a flood of applications from so-called social welfare groups last year, set aside about 75 containing the words "tea party" and "patriot" for more detailed review, said Lois Lerner, IRS director of exempt organizations. The groups also were asked to supply additional information that the IRS does not usually ask for, such as donor lists. . . .

The chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, which has represented 27 of the targeted tea party groups, said the IRS requested such information as membership lists, resumes of board members and details of conversations group members might have had with members of Congress.

"It's clear they had no right to this information, which tells me that it was partisan and that it was coordinated," said Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel. Fifteen of the groups have been approved for tax-exempt status, Sekulow said, adding that he planned to demand that the rest be approved immediately. . . .

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