Tea Party Patriots cofounder Jenny Beth Martin has been all over the airwaves since the IRS story broke, talking about how her group was among those whose applications for nonprofit status were unfairly targeted for extra scrutiny. She has called the IRS's actions a "disturbing, illegal, and outrageous abuse of government power."
She told Fox News that Tea Party Patriots wants the agency repay it for expenses it incurred as a result of the "intrusive" questions it asked, including requests for "every single post on Facebook" and "every comment that any person who's a fan of ours on Facebook had ever made."On Friday, lawyers for her group sent a letter to the IRS alerting the agency to coming lawsuits over its "illegal" conduct.But while the IRS has admitted to unfairly targeting some conservative groups, Tea Party Patriots, a national umbrella organization for the grassroots movement, may not have been one of them. As I reported last week, although IRS officials engaged in misconduct, they also may have had good reason in some cases to scrutinize groups whose financial and tax histories raised questions, including Tea Party Patriots.The group engaged in a type of creative accounting that the IRS said it specifically planned to crack down on, and TPP drew criticism from some of its own constituents for a lack of financial transparency. Moreover, the IRS received a formal complaint about TPP—when I filed one in 2011 after the group refused to provide me with a financial disclosure required by law.
another need for amendment, there should be a court ordered hold on those who are being investigated if enough reason is present to proceed, give them the innocent before proven guilty, but don't let them cry foul before their innocents is assured.
not like those crying who practice that type of politics daily mostly against Pres. and this admin. who time and again come up innocent of the right wing assumption.
accusers who under oath say "i have no evidence", should not be allowed to put out the idea if they have no tangible proof, too many take the lie and run with it. talk about spending we don't know the cost of those inquisitions but they do, and although they fail they do it again like 37 times for ACA, WHO'S SPENDING YOUR MONEY REALLY?
When I first started covering the tea party movement in mid-2009, TPP had quickly emerged as one of its biggest players. It began in February 2009 as a loosely organized group of activists, officially incorporating that June as a self-identified 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization. (Nonprofits can self-designate their status even before applying officially with the IRS.) The group got heavily involved in the 2010 midterm elections: In September 2010, TPP announced that it had been given a $1 million anonymous donation to "get out the vote" during the campaign, while another wealthy anonymous donor—whom I later identified as conservative Montana millionaire Raymon Thompson—lent the group's leaders his private jet. (See this video of Martin and TPP cofounder Mark Meckler jetting around the country to rally the tea party troops just ahead of the election.)Despite evidence that lots of money was pouring into the organization, TPP had disclosed little about its internal finances; its own members began complaining about the jet, hotel, and travel costs its leaders were running up, and a lack of transparency. Rhode Island tea party activist Marina Peterson told me then that the large anonymous donation troubled her, especially because she had no idea what the national leaders were doing with it. "How do we know we want to take that money if we don't know who the person is?" she asked. "What if it was George Soros?"
you can't do things that are falsely exploiting the gov. and not mention it while accusing another of the same crime you are guilty of, like Clinton said " takes a lot a brass to accuse somebody of what you are doing".
the fact that they rigged it so their donors don't have to disclose shows me intent to deceive. who is really trying to buy our gov't aside from the usual billionaires?
