[EL] When it rains, it pours: TIGTA report on targeting leaked

[BZall at aol.com]

Apparently (at least to the degree you can trust HuffPost to get anything  
right), there is already a year-long investigation of the IRS scrutiny, and 
it  is about to be released (perhaps explaining why the "apology" came out 
on  Friday:
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/11/irs-tea-party_n_3260286.html
 
Associated Press story that the Treasury Inspector General for Tax  
Administration draft report details "Advocacy Project" problems as early as June  
2011. 
 
Note this timeline:
 
Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in  the IRS' Rulings 
and Agreements office "held a meeting with chief counsel so  that everyone 
would have the latest information on the issue." 
On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect  groups was changed to, 
"political action type organizations involved in  limiting/expanding 
Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights,  social economic 
reform/movement," the report says.
Pretty shocking on a number of levels: 1) that it took them so long to meet 
 with Chief Counsel (the main IRS lawyers); 2) that Chief Counsel or other  
higher-ups didn't immediately stop this; 3) that it took from August to 
January  to change the criteria; 4) that the criteria for added scrutiny covers 
educating  on the Constitution and Bill of Rights; and so on. 
 
I was upset, but not really surprised at the earlier news; there has been  
so much detailed information on the targeting that there was no real way to 
deny  it. But changing the criteria to cover the very thing that protects 
speech? 
 
Virtually every academic on this list is probably within this  description. 
 
 
The report has apparently already gone to the Hill. 
 

Barnaby Zall 
Of Counsel 
Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani,  LLP 
10411 Motor City Drive, Suite 500
Bethesda, MD 20817
301-231-6943  (direct dial) 
bzall at aol.com  
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