FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2013
Cause of Action: IRS Is At Risk of Conspiracy
WASHINGTON – Cause of Action (CoA), a government accountability organization, today called for transparency and accountability in light of reports that IRS official Lois Lerner admitted that the “Internal Revenue Service inappropriately flagged conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status,” according to the Associated Press.
Executive Director of Cause of Action, Dan Epstein responded:
“Cause of Action has spent over a year investigating how the IRS monitors tax-exempt groups and what type of access the President has to individuals’ and businesses’ tax return information. As a new 501 (c)(3) organization, we know firsthand that this IRS office in Cincinnati processes a high volume of, if not all, tax-exempt applications, and therefore this is not a low-level office in terms of accountability in regard to tax-exempt applications. In light of the alleged confessions by the IRS employees of singling out different non-profit groups for review on the basis of political beliefs, the IRS is at risk of being guilty of conspiracy. The IRS has admitted that some undisclosed number of its employees conspired to target taxpayers based solely on their political views, and then subjected them to differential standards of review, all apparently to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate their members.
We call on Congress, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio to take seriously these claims of what can at the least be called misconduct and at the worst constitutes a violation of law by taxpayer-funded government employees.
The politicization of federal agencies must not be allowed to stand, the full matter of facts must come to light, and the leadership of the IRS must answer for this incredulous behavior that has betrayed the trust of the American people.”
To see more information on Cause of Action’s work investigating the IRS, click here.
