Democrats are insisting J. Russell George wasn’t forthright in previous testimony. | REUTERS IRS debate shifts again

Democrats spent the week trying to create a new narrative in the tea party targeting scandal: Progressives were scrutinized too.

Now the debate is shifting again — this time to the question of which groups were scrutinized the most.


In a letter to Michigan Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Treasury inspector general J. Russell George said that about 30 percent of tax exempt applications that included terms like “progress” or “progressive” were flagged for additional scrutiny while 100 percent of organizations associated with the tea party received extra review.

And there’s no evidence — so far — to suggest that left leaning groups that were flagged encountered the same type of scrutiny as conservative organizations, which were asked to turn over donor lists to the IRS, detail books they were reading and share promotional materials.

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The GOP immediately seized on the disparate treatment to argue that their initial theory still stands: Conservative groups were unfairly targeted by the IRS.

Democrats aren’t backing down. They’re still insisting George, who runs the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, wasn’t forthright in his previous testimony to Congress.

The tug-of-war has muddied the narrative over the politically charged IRS scandal, which could deflate the power of the issue for Republicans.

Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp said that, for conservative groups, the scrutiny from the IRS went well beyond being placed on a so-called be on the lookout list, which often served as the first step for groups that were flagged.

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“So far, the evidence only shows conservatives being systematically targeted by the IRS, not just flagged through the BOLO, but actually targeted,” Camp said.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) accused Democrats of trying to stall congressional probes of the IRS.

“Our Democratic colleagues should stop trying to derail the investigation by defending IRS officials with distorted claims equating the systematic scrutiny of tea party groups with the more routine screening progressive groups received,” Issa said. “Tea party groups and progressive groups were treated very differently by the IRS.”

The developments this week marked a change of course for the Democrats, who previously had been almost as vocal as Republicans in slamming the IRS.

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Levin has asked George to expand his audit about the IRS’s providing extra scrutiny to conservative groups applying for a tax exemption to see how liberal groups were treated.

“Congress deserved to know that ‘progressives’ were on the IRS screening list during the time of the audit and progressive organizations were in the review group,” Levin said. “These omissions changed the nature of the investigation and the IG’s testimony is not consistent with his written response.”

During a May 22 hearing of the House oversight committee, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) directly questioned George on the possibility that progressives may have also been subject to scrutiny. Connolly pointed out that just 96 of the nearly 300 potential political cases were flagged using conservative terms.

George simply said “in many instances the names were neutral … in that you couldn’t necessarily attribute it to one particular affiliation or another.”

Levin is asking Camp to bring George back to Capitol Hill for another grilling.

“We need to have him come back and discuss that,” Levin told reporters on Thursday.

“We have every reason to have questions about the inspector general’s investigation,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.).

Democrats are also latching on to a second team of specialists that reviewed the be-on-the-lookout lists in the tax-exempt division. George’s letter mentioned only the conservative and liberal groups reviewed as political cases, and did not include the nonprofits reviewed by the second team.

A Democratic staffer argued that without knowing the actions from the second group, it is impossible to determine the extent that liberal groups were targeted.

Daniel Werfel, the new head of the IRS, told lawmakers at a hearing Thursday that the IRS would also investigate if liberal groups faced extra scrutiny.

He added that the “evidence at this point” from his internal review of IRS operations found that liberal groups were included on BOLO lists and there was a “diversity” in the types of groups reviewed.