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WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle yesterday launched investigations of the Internal Revenue Service, and President Obama blasted the agency for targeting the Tea Party and other conservative groups.
“If you’ve got the IRS operating in anything less than a neutral and nonpartisan way, then that is outrageous . . . People have to be held accountable, and it’s got to be fixed,” Obama told reporters at the White House.
“I have no patience with it, I will not tolerate it,” he said, adding he would not take further action until seeing a report by the Treasury inspector general.
Obama said he learned of the misconduct only Friday, when IRS officials publicly apologized for targeting conservative groups in search of violations of their tax-exempt status.
But IRS officials in Washington knew about it for years, according to a timeline prepared by Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee.
In June 2011, Lois Lerner, head of the IRS tax-exempt division, was briefed that agents were flagging tax cases that included the terms “Tea Party,” “patriots,” “9/12 Project,” “government spending,” “government debt,” “taxes” and “make America a better place to live” and statements that criticized how the country is run, the timeline shows.
Tea Party groups have been complaining about IRS harassment for more than a year.
The Treasury IG has been investigating for at least a year and is expected to issue a report this week detailing the abuses.
“It clearly appears to be a political effort,” said Kevin Kookogey, president and founder of Linchpins of Liberty, an educational group that teaches conservative political philosophy.
He said the IRS sent him letters that requested “highly invasive information,” including the names and addresses of students and donors, the group’s political stances and the text of speeches delivered at the group’s events.
“We knew it was an attempt to be intimidating,” Kookogey said. “It’s not only unethical, it’s unconstitutional.”
The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents Linchpins of Liberty and about 26 Tea Party groups, is planning legal action against the IRS.
The House Ways and Means Committee slated a hearing for Friday, when acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller and Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George will be grilled.
Sen. Marco Rubio called on Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to demand Miller’s resignation.
“It is clear the IRS cannot operate with even a shred of the American people’s confidence under the current leadership,” Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote to Lew.