IRS Documents Show Liberal Groups Also Vetted

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A top Democrat probing the Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative tea party groups released documents Friday suggesting that "occupy" and other liberal-leaning groups received similar vetting.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released documents from 2010 and 2012 used by IRS staff reviewing tax-exempt applications that suggest the key words "progressive" and "occupy" were subjected to added review, in addition to tea party applications.

"Occupy Wall Street" and similar left-leaning groups have sprouted up in recent years to protest corporate power.

Cummings blasted the chief of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), who issued a report two months ago that said the agency targeted conservative terms like tea party and patriot when examining applications from nonprofit political groups seeking federal tax exemption.

Cummings called for TIGTA's chief, J. Russell George to be summoned before the committee.

Republicans say the targeting of conservative groups shows political bias in the IRS under the Democratic Obama administration, and Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the oversight committee chairman, has focused his panel's attention on it.

The scandal led President Barack Obama to fire the acting IRS chief.

"This investigation ... has been characterized by one-sided and partial information leading to unsubstantiated accusations with no basis in fact," Cummings said in his letter to Issa.

Documents released by Cummings include a May 3, 2013, email between George and his deputy for ivestigations, with the deputy concluding after a search of 5,500 IRS emails there was no indication of political motivation in the tea party searches.

'We Stand By our Findings'

A TIGTA spokesperson said: "We stand by our findings and testimony."

Ali Ahmad, a spokesman for Issa, said the documents do not prove the liberal groups got the same level of scrutiny as tea party-type groups.

He also said George reported that 100 percent of the tea party-like groups were held up for more than two years, while a fraction of the liberal groups experienced such delays.

"Nobody should ever assert that the IRS should not be looking at groups for potential political activity," Ahmad said. "The fact that they would be training people about how to look for political activity on both sides doesn't have anything to do with the special process set up for the tea party."

The IRS documents released by Cummings add another wrinkle to the tea party targeting inquiry that has triggered the worst crisis in years at the tax collecting agency.

An IRS official acknowledged two months ago that conservative groups seeking tax exempt status were inappropriately targeted, after agency officials had denied to lawmakers that the groups had received such treatment.

In addition to the IRS chief, other IRS officials were also removed from their jobs. The use of the targeting, or "BOLO" lists, was suspended and the FBI, as well as congressional committees, are conducting investigations.

The potential use of liberal terms to select applications for added scrutiny came up last month when another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Sandy Levin of Michigan, released several BOLO lists with terms like "Progressive."

TIGTA said in a letter to Levin that although liberal terms were on BOLO lists, there was no indication that they received the same review and delay as tea party and other conservative groups.

The inspector general noted that in many BOLO lists, the word "historical" was used next to progressive, suggesting it was not an active issue.

Cummings released internal documents, including emails and Power Point presentations that showed words like occupy were actively being used in February 2012.

One document suggests progressive was used during a July 2010 training, along with tea party, as key words that indicated potential political activity.

Groups seeking tax exemption under federal law may engage in limited amounts of political activity, depending on the type of exemption sought. This and the vagueness of the rules often make it difficult for IRS agents to tell which groups overstep and become ineligible for tax exemption.

—By Reuters.