On Sunday's edition of Fox News Sunday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., defended his decision to send the IRS after Crossroads GPS, a conservative group co-founded by Karl Rove, in 2010, The Hill reported.
Durbin told Wallace the reason he singled out Crossroads while not mentioning any liberal group is because the organization was bragging about how much money they were raising.
"Let's get back to the basics," he said. "Citizens United really unleashed hundreds if not thousands of organizations seeking tax-exempt status to play in political campaigns. The law we wrote as Congress said that they had to exclusively be engaged in social welfare and not politics and campaigning. And, so, here is the IRS trying to decide whether or not these organizations really comply with the law. Crossroads was exhibit A. They were boastful about how much money they were going to raise and beat Democrats with."
Durbin said he didn't target liberal groups because he believed that an investigation of Crossroads would serve as a warning shot to all organizations.
“There is no basis for targeting within the IRS. What we basically need to say is all groups need to have the law applied to them equally,” he said.
But a 2010 Politico report said Durbin's request "comes in the midst of a push from the White House to cast doubt on the funding sources of groups like Crossroads GPS — founded by GOP strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie — or the traditionally Republican-friendly Chamber of Commerce."
As it turns out, the IRS targeted some 500 conservative groups, and despite claims by the White House, at least two dozen conservative groups say the harassment is continuing.
“Without question, the IRS misconduct of harassing and abusing our clients was still in high gear from May 2012 through May of this year. . . . To suggest this tactic ended a year ago is not only offensive, but it is simply inaccurate as well,” said Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice.
According to a report at the National Review Online, Cleta Mitchell, the attorney representing True the Vote, has evidence that many of the “dozens, if not hundreds” of conservative groups still waiting for approval received additional reams of invasive questions in the fall of 2012 and later.
Ian Tuttle said that Sekulow Sekulow “plans to file suit in federal court in the coming weeks on behalf of more than two dozen conservative groups that claim their harassment at the hands of the nation’s tax authority continued long past the White House’s purported end date.”
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SOURCE http://www.examiner.com/article/dick-durbin-no-regrets-sending-irs-after-conservative-group
Durbin told Wallace the reason he singled out Crossroads while not mentioning any liberal group is because the organization was bragging about how much money they were raising.
"Let's get back to the basics," he said. "Citizens United really unleashed hundreds if not thousands of organizations seeking tax-exempt status to play in political campaigns. The law we wrote as Congress said that they had to exclusively be engaged in social welfare and not politics and campaigning. And, so, here is the IRS trying to decide whether or not these organizations really comply with the law. Crossroads was exhibit A. They were boastful about how much money they were going to raise and beat Democrats with."
Durbin said he didn't target liberal groups because he believed that an investigation of Crossroads would serve as a warning shot to all organizations.
“There is no basis for targeting within the IRS. What we basically need to say is all groups need to have the law applied to them equally,” he said.
But a 2010 Politico report said Durbin's request "comes in the midst of a push from the White House to cast doubt on the funding sources of groups like Crossroads GPS — founded by GOP strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie — or the traditionally Republican-friendly Chamber of Commerce."
As it turns out, the IRS targeted some 500 conservative groups, and despite claims by the White House, at least two dozen conservative groups say the harassment is continuing.
“Without question, the IRS misconduct of harassing and abusing our clients was still in high gear from May 2012 through May of this year. . . . To suggest this tactic ended a year ago is not only offensive, but it is simply inaccurate as well,” said Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice.
According to a report at the National Review Online, Cleta Mitchell, the attorney representing True the Vote, has evidence that many of the “dozens, if not hundreds” of conservative groups still waiting for approval received additional reams of invasive questions in the fall of 2012 and later.
Ian Tuttle said that Sekulow Sekulow “plans to file suit in federal court in the coming weeks on behalf of more than two dozen conservative groups that claim their harassment at the hands of the nation’s tax authority continued long past the White House’s purported end date.”
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If you like this article, you can follow Joe on Twitter @jnewby1956, visit and like his Facebook page, or subscribe to receive email updates when a new article is published.
For hard-hitting conservative commentary, please visit Joe's blog, the Conservative Firing Line. You can also find Joe's articles at Right News Now, Liberty Unyielding and PolitiCollision.
SOURCE http://www.examiner.com/article/dick-durbin-no-regrets-sending-irs-after-conservative-group
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