Document: IRS ordered conservative educational group to turn over a list of high school and college students it trained

Federal government demanded a list of everyone a Tennessee organization had ever trained, or planned to train

Linchpins of Liberty mentors high school and college students and teaches them conservative political philosophy, but is not tea-party-linked

'Can you imagine my responsibility to parents if I disclosed the names of their children to the IRS?' asked the group's founder

IRS Inspector General report listed seven questions the agency should never have asked, but this wasn't one of them



When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and college students about conservative political philosophy, the agency responded with a list of 95 questions in 31 parts, including an ultimatum for a list of everyone the group had trained, or planned to train.

'Provide details regarding all training you have provided or will provide,' the IRS demanded. 'Indicate who has received or will receive the training and submit copies of the training material.'

That question was part of the tax collection agency's February 14, 2012 letter to Kevin Kookogey. founder of the group Linchpins of Liberty. He had submitted his application 13 months earlier.

'Can you imagine my responsibility to parents if I disclosed the names of their children to the IRS?' he asked MailOnline.

It's 'an impossible question to answer fully and truthfully,' he said, 'without disclosing the names of anyone I ever taught, or would ever teach, including students.'



Three of the more than 90 questions the IRS posed to Linchpins of Liberty, including (#24) the demand for a list of everyone the organization had trained, or planned to train - all of whom would be students in college and high school

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney faced hostile media questions on Tuesday, including many about the fast-brewing IRS scandal. He maintained that the White House had no knowledge of the IRS's practice of targeting conservative groups

Like the leaders of many tea party-affiliated groups whose tax-exemption applications have become the subject of angry complaints, Kookogey called the IRS's inquisition an overreach, 'especially considering that my organization mentors high school and college students.'

It 'should send chills through your spine,' he told MailOnline, 'that the government would ask me to identify those I teach, and to provide details of what I teach them.'

The 13-month delay, while burdensome, was far shorter than those some other groups endured. According to a report released late Tuesday by the IRS's Office of Inspector General, the average delay at one point was 574 days.

But Kookogey said a $30,000 grant was canceled as a result of the IRS's months-long radio silence, when he couldn't tell his donor that Linchpins had earned its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

That money would have made a significant difference to the group, judging from its public filings in Tennessee. In 2011, Linchpins of Liberty reported collecting just $3,460 in contributions, and spending $7,328 on its programs.



Kevin Kookogey said his group, Linchpins of Liberty, should never have been caught up in the IRS's anti-conservative dragnet. The IRS Inspector General issued a report on Tuesday largely clearing upper-echelon officials in the Obama administration



The group's online materials refer to it as 'an American leadership development enterprise.' Its stated purpose is to mentor high school and college students, placing an emphasis on Western civilization and an old-style core curriculum - what previous generations called the 'great books.'

'Our ideas are opposed to the Obama administration, but we’re not tea party,' Kookogey told The Tennessean .

It's that lack of a tea party connection, he said, that makes his predicament so maddening.



He told MailOnline that nothing about his group - 'not our name or our description or our website, or anything' - should have placed it among the organizations the IRS chose to scrutinize closely by using key words like 'tea party,' '9/12,' and 'patriots' as qualifiers.

'I'm not a Tea Party group. I'm not a Patriot group by name' he told NewsChannel 5 in Nashville.

'We mentor high school and college students in conservative political philosophy. It's a one on one relationship.'



Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he ordered a Justice Department investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups for extra tax scrutiny. He will face questions on Wednesday from House Republicans in a Judiciary Committee hearing

Kookogey summed it up in an interview with MailOnline as 'unethical, unconstitutional, and unfair,' later asserting in an email that '[w]e were targeted by the IRS based on our political beliefs and the content of our speech.'



The American Center for Law and Justice, which represents 27 conservative groups including Linchpins of Liberty, is planning to file suit against the IRS.



Jay Sekulow, that organization's chief counsel, wrote on Tuesday that 'the IRS abuse is ongoing.'



'Even though the IRS admitted wrongdoing,' Sekulow wrote in an essay for FoxNews.com , even though the Inspector General’s report indicates that wrongdoing was widespread, the IRS still hasn’t withdrawn its overbroad and unconstitutional questions, and it still hasn’t granted the exemptions it should grant, despite the fact that some applications have been pending for more than two years.'

The Inspector General's report includes a list of 'the seven questions' the IRS asked right-wing groups that were later 'identified as being unnecessary.'

Its request for the list of students trained by Linchpins of Liberty was not among them.



The report also largely exonerates political appointees in the Treasury Department and at the top of the IRS, instead blaming mid-level bureaucrats for providing 'ineffective management' and using 'inappropriate criteria' to red-flag conservative groups.

It makes no mention of anyone in the White House directing the IRS to play political favorites. But The Washington Post has reported that 'senior IRS officials' in Washington, D.C. were notified of the practice in 2011.

The IRS Inspector General identified just seven questions that were 'unnecessary,' among the hundreds asked of tea party groups and other conservative organizations that sought tax-exempt status

In December of that year, Kookogey says, he called the IRS's nonprofit evaluation arm in Cincinnati, Ohio, to find out why his group's application had taken so long.

The agent on the other end of the line, he said, told him, 'We are waiting on guidance from our superiors as to your organization and similar organizations.'



Attorney General Eric Holder has said that he ordered the FBI to initiate a criminal probe on Friday, when he learned about the IRS's practices.



The IRS's actions, he said, were, 'certainly outrageous and unacceptable, but we are examining the facts to see if there were criminal violations.'

Holder is expected to testify in a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday in Washington. On Friday the House Ways and Means Committee will hear testimony from acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller and Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George.

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio has called for Miller to lose his job.



Jay Sekulow (R) is threatening to sue the IRS on behalf of his conservative clients, while Sen. Marco Rubio (L) has asked Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to fire the acting IRS commissioner



'At a bare minimum, those involved with this deeply offensive use of government power have committed a violation of the public trust that has already had a profoundly chilling effect on free speech,' Rubio wrote Monday in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. 'Such behavior cannot be excused with a simple apology.'

'It is clear the IRS cannot operate with even a shred of the American people’s confidence under the current leadership,' Rubio continued. 'Therefore, I strongly urge that you and President Obama demand the IRS Commissioner’s resignation, effective immediately.'

On Friday, Sekulow demanded that the IRS immediately approve the tax-exempt status applications of his organization's 10 legal clients, including Linchpins of Liberty, that are still waiting. He issued the agency an ultimatum: Grant the requests by noon on May 17, or prepare to fight in court.

