In a separate filing to the Federal Election Commission, A.T.R. reported political spending of $15.79 million (already over 50 percent of its resources – more on this later). Since 86 percent of A.T.R.'s money came from Crossroads, this suggests that Crossroads indirectly financed $13.6 million in political spending by A.T.R., despite the fact that Crossroads included this grant to A.T.R. on its 2012 990 form as part of its aggregate spending on “activities related to social welfare.”

If this $13.6 million of A.T.R.'s political spending had been counted against Crossroads’s political spending limit, it would have pushed Crossroads’s political spending to $87.8 million. Or 46 percent of its total spending – closer to the key 49 percentage point cutoff permitted under I.R.S. regulations.

I emailed Paul Lindsay, who has taken over the job from Collegio as Crossroads’s spokesman. My question was: “In order for Crossroads GPS to claim 501c4 status, it has to spend less than 50 percent of its expenditures on political activity. According to its own reports, it does stay within that limit. At the same time, much of the activity Crossroads engages in is the awarding of grants to politically active 501c4s, like Americans for Tax Reform, 60 Plus, National Right to Life, and others. These groups, in turn, go on to spend a substantial portion of their revenues on political activities. Does this, in effect, amount to a system allowing Crossroads to spend more than 50 percent of its money on political activity — first on its own, and then by the groups that it supports?”

Lindsay replied, “Like labor unions, we invest in a number of organizations that have complementary missions that help us advance our issue agenda. Our grants to other 501c4’s are predicated on a review of their financial records and a stipulation that the funds only be used for their exempt activity and not for political purposes.”

I wrote Lindsay back to ask, “If ATR agreed in a contract with you, as you described this earlier, not to use the money for politics, what has Crossroads done to correct the situation? Are you asking for repayment or some other form of remedy?”

Lindsay’s response: “We have implemented stricter due diligence (as outlined in my earlier email) this election cycle.”

Americans for Tax Reform, too, has problems on the political spending front. As noted above, in its reports to the F.E.C., A.T.R. stated that it had spent $15.79 million on political activity in 2012 out of the $30.9 million it spent altogether. This put A.T.R. in violation of the 49 percent rule, pushing its political spending to 51 percent.