Tea party groups, IRS announce settlement
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has settled lawsuits with tea party groups — including some from Ohio — that received extra, often-burdensome scrutiny from the IRS when applying for taxexempt status.
The settlements end another chapter in a political scandal that dogged the administration of President Barack Obama and remains a source of outrage for Republicans.
The IRS is apologizing to the groups as part of the proposed settlement agreements outlined in court filings Wednesday. The groups and the Justice Department are asking a judge to declare it illegal for the tax agency to discriminate based on political views, according to the agreements.
Republicans erupted in 2013 after the IRS apologized for submitting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status to intensive scrutiny, in part by zeroing in on groups with words like or in their names. Many had their applications delayed for months and years. Some were asked improper questions about their donors and even their religious practices, an inspector general’s report found.
Federal documents showed that officials in Cincinnati and Washington knew IRS agents in Cincinnati were targeting conservative groups by their party affiliations and by “guilt by association.”
The settlement in one suit in the District of Columbia included the Shelby County Liberty Group of Sidney, the Portage County Tea Party of Kent and American Patriots Against Government Excess of Fremont.
“We accomplished our goals of exposing the tyranny of our government under the Obama Administration, doing something to stop it, and making sure it doesn’t happen again,” Portage County Tea Party Executive Director Tom Zawistowski said in a statement Thursday.
“The bottom line is that, with this settlement, no one
can deny that the IRS targeted American citizens because of their political beliefs and that it was wrong to do so,” he said.
Zawistowski claimed the IRS targeting was an Obama administration attempt to kill off conservative tea party groups. The Portage County group lost potential members and donations because people were afraid the IRS would come after them due to their affiliation with the group, he said.
It is unclear whether the settlement involves monetary compensation. Eddie Greim, a lawyer representing more than 400 groups in a classaction suit, described a “very substantial” financial settlement but would not elaborate. The Justice Department made no reference to a payout in its announcement.
Zawistowski said a separate class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati involving tea party groups from Ohio and across the nation was not among those settled and remains alive.
Much of the IRS leadership, including top official Lois Lerner, resigned or retired over the scandal. One of the proposed settlement agreements calls senior management “delinquent” in providing control and direction. And it faults Lerner for failing to tell managers of the long delays in processing applications from tea party and other conservative groups.
The Obama Justice Department announced in 2015 that no one at the IRS would be prosecuted in the scandal, saying investigators had found mismanagement but no evidence that it had targeted a group based on its viewpoints or obstructed justice.
Republicans had hoped the Justice Department under Attorney General Jeff Sessions would reopen its case against Lerner. But officials told members of Congress last month they would not charge Lerner, saying “reopening the criminal investigation would not be appropriate based on the available evidence.”
Still, Sessions condemned the misconduct in a statement Thursday announcing the settlement agreements, which still need a judge’s approval.
Meanwhile, the White House on Thursday named Treasury official David Kautter to serve as acting commissioner of the IRS, effective Nov. 13.