Time: Tue Jun 24 10:42:10 1997
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Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 10:36:05 -0700
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: News on our friends at the IRS (fwd)
<snip>
>
>Just how political has IRS become?
>
> At least 20 groups
> critical of Clinton targeted
>
> By Joseph Farah and Sarah Foster
> Copyright 1997
>
>SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- At least 20 non-profit organizations "unfriendly"
>to the Clinton administration have faced Internal Revenue Service audits
>since 1993, a survey by the Western Journalism Center, one of the groups
>targeted, has found.
>
>Coincidence? Many conservative leaders and attorneys familiar with IRS
>practices laugh at that suggestion. Groups of all sizes and purpose are
>currently under audit, have gone through the process or are threatened
>with it -- from large, well-known organizations such as the Heritage
>Foundation, Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Rifle
>Association to small, local pro-life and patriot groups. Even the two
>most popular conservative magazines -- American Spectator and National
>Review -- are feeling the inquisitorial wrath of the IRS.
>
>Though officially no one at National Review will even confirm the audit,
>sources close to the journal say the audit is the first in the
>magazine's history.
>
>"We're not talking about an attack on conservative philosophy, per se,"
>says attorney William Wewer, a specialist in nonprofit law. "Clinton
>doesn't care about ideas. He cares about power and he's using the most
>feared enforcement tool in the government to attack people who are
>opposing him politically. He's using government to achieve personal
>political goals."
>
>The IRS denies any political motivations for its choices. Yet not a
>single prominent public policy organization friendly to the Clinton
>administration has apparently been targeted for audit in the same
>period, according to two random samples and research into the non-profit
>community. Many tax-exempt organizations are, however, loath to discuss
>such matters because of its potentially devastating impact on
>fund-raising efforts.
>
>According to Wewer, who represents about a thousand charities, the
>groups singled out include many which have challenged the Clinton
>administration in a "high-profile fashion."
>
>"Every one of our clients who is under audit has taken on the Clinton
>administration vigorously, usually through a direct mail campaign," he
>says. His observation applies to most of the groups so far identified.
>
>For example, there was the American Policy Center and its "Fire Jocelyn
>Elders" campaign in 1993. In addition to a request for contributions,
>would-be donors were asked to mail an enclosed card to President Clinton
>demanding prompt dismissal of the former surgeon general. About six
>months ago, the group was notified that it was being audited.
>
>"The idea that someone can write to them and say 'I don't like their
>politics, so go investigate them' is outrageous," says APC President Tom
>DeWeese,
>
>The IRS claims it is increasingly dependent on these "citizen
>complaints" and maintains the ongoing investigation and audit of APC is
>simply normal routine checking. Wewer dismisses that idea as "bogus."
>
>"I know of many citizen complaints that never get acted on," he says.
>"I've filed several myself against organizations that were promoting
>terrorism -- some of the extreme green groups and animal rights groups.
>Nothing was done, not even when I laid out the entire case for them."
>
>Then there's the strange case of the newly formed Wisconsin non-profit
>Fortress America. Just last November the group received its 501(c)4
>tax-exempt status -- a classification that entitles the organization to
>engage in some lobbying and political activities. A month later Fortress
>America sent out a fund-raising letter that was critical of Hillary
>Clinton. In January, two IRS agents began investigating the group.
>
>Fortress America is so new it hadn't even filed its first tax return,
>hence, no actual audit was possible. Washington attorney Alan Dye, who
>represents the targeted group, says he can't recall being involved in a
>case where the IRS began investigating an organization before an audit
>was even begun.
>
>"The coincidence of this occurring within 30 days of a negative letter
>about Hillary Clinton is pretty striking," Dye observes. "If the IRS
>doesn't mean to be biased, they're doing everything they can to make it
>look like they are."
>
>Another IRS target was Amy Moritz Ridenour's National Center for Public
>Policy Research. The group played a prominent role in the political
>defeat of the Clinton health-care plan in 1993 and 1994, focusing public
>attention on Hillary Clinton's role withe the president's advisory task
>force and its secret meetings. In 1995, the group was audited. The group
>also challenged the first lady's access to classified information,
>secured without a security clearance. The group called for congressional
>hearings to determine guidelines about such unprecendented clearances.
>
>By IRS standards, the group's ordeal was brief -- about two weeks. At
>one point during the examination, Ridenour asked the IRS field agent why
>the group was targeted. The disturbing answer: "You probably made
>someone mad."
>
>"Now why would he say, 'probably'?" Ridenour wonders. "You'd figure he'd
>say oh, it's just a routine audit, even if that weren't true. To me it
>shows there's an assumption at the IRS that decisions [like who gets
>audited] are made for political reasons. It must be part of the
>environment."
>
>The Western Journalism Center shared a similar experience. When an IRS
>field agent began asking questions about the content of the group's
>work, the motivations for investigative reporting about White House
>scandals and suggesting that the center should be reclassified from an
>educational 501(c)3 status to a 501(c)4, group's accountant protested.
>
>"Look," said Thomas Cederquist, the IRS auditor, "this is a political
>case and the decision is going to be made at the national level." Asked
>what he meant by that statement, Cederquist repeated it. Only recently,
>months after the center went public with accusations that the audit was
>politically inspired was Cederquist replaced as the lead investigator on
>the case.
>
>None of this is surprising to Wewer who has been involved in
>conservative political activism for 33 years.
>
>"They're trying to destroy the very warp and woof of what makes us work
>as a country," he said. "The democratic system is a robust system, but
>it can be very fragile when it comes to this type of attack."
>
>In response to the Western Journalism Center's story of apparently
>politically motivated IRS audits broken last fall in the Wall Street
>Journal, Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation began an investigation.
>Hearings are set to begin some time next month and a final report will
>be issued in September.
>
>Last February, IRS Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson, a long-time
>political ally and friend of the Clintons and a self-described
>"yellow-dog Democrat," announced she was stepping down from her post to
>pursue other interests. The New York Post, however, suggested in an
>editorial that the revelations of politically motivated audits may have
>been a central factor in her decision. No replacement for Richardson has
>yet been named.
>
> Joseph Farah is executive director of the Western
> Journalism Center.
>
> Sarah Foster is a center associate.
>
> Copyright 1997. All rights reserved.
>
>
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>
>
>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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