Via Billy
Judicial Watch today released
695 pages
of new documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that contain
admissions by IRS officials that the agency used “inappropriate
political labels” to screen the tax-exempt applications of conservative
organizations. Other records reveal that the IRS was going to require
501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations to restrict their alleged political
activities in exchange for “expedited consideration” of their tax-exempt
applications.
The documents were produced after a
revelation
by the IRS that it had located “an additional 6,924 documents of
potentially responsive records” relating to a 2015 Judicial Watch
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
lawsuit
about the Obama IRS targeting scandal. The FOIA lawsuit seeks records
about the IRS’ selection of individuals and organizations for audits
based upon applications requesting nonprofit tax status filed by Tea
Party and other 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations (
Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:15-cv-00220)).
Of the 695 pages of documents released by the IRS, 422 (61%) were
withheld in their entirety. These newly identified records are not
records that were contained in the “
Congressional Database,” which the IRS created in 2013 to house records responsive to congressional inquiries into the IRS scandal.
Included among the newly released a material is a June 20, 2013,
memo
from Karen Schiller, then-Acting Director, EO Rulings and Agreement,
suspending use of the controversial Be on the Lookout (BOLO) and Touch
and Go (TAG) lists: