The IRS Scandal, Day 1136

NPR, Court Documents Show The IRS Focused Scrutiny On Conservative Groups:

Three-year-old allegations of political influence at the Internal Revenue Service are being revived as two House committees move toward punishing the IRS commissioner, John Koskinen.

The House Oversight Committee this week voted on party lines to censure Koskinen. The House Judiciary Committee holds its second hearing next week on whether to impeach him.

"This all started with the IRS using its authorities to target certain conservative groups for their beliefs," Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said in prepared testimony to the Judiciary panel.

This has been the accusation against the IRS since 2013, when Lois Lerner — head of the office that reviewed applications for tax-exempt status — admitted that the agency put additional scrutiny into the applications for nonprofit tax status of conservative and Tea Party groups.

Since the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, politically active nonprofit groups have proliferated. The nonprofit tax status shields such groups from having to disclose donors, but it also requires that at least half of the group's activities focus on nonpolitical, "social welfare" causes.

Republicans allege an organized effort, possibly run by the White House, to aggressively probe and then stall the applications in order to handicap its political opposition. The Treasury Department's inspector general overseeing the IRS found that progressive groups were treated the same way. Democrats blame it all on bureaucratic mistakes, misjudgments and understaffing and say the GOP is on a witch hunt.

Until now, what's been missing is a list of the nonprofit groups that got special scrutiny — a list that presumably would show whether the agency had a political agenda or not.

Now, thanks to filings in a federal lawsuit in Ohio, there is such a list, with 426 names on it. And yes, it's top-heavy with conservative groups. ...

In all, 282 conservative groups were on the IRS list, about two-thirds of the total number of groups that got additional scrutiny. ... Whatever the IRS meant to do, this hodgepodge of a list illustrates how the agency bollixed the nonprofit application process. Now the partisan controversy seems to have knocked the agency out of its enforcer's role as nonprofit groups move deeper into politics.

• The IRS Scandal, Day 1135 (June 17, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1134 (June 16, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1133 (June 15, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1132 (June 14, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1131 (June 13, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1130 (June 12, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1129 (June 11, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1128 (June 10, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1127 (June 9, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1126 (June 8, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1125 (June 7, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1124 (June 6, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1123 (June 5, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1122 (June 4, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1121 (June 3, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1020 (June 2, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1119 (June 1, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1118 (May 31, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1117 (May 30, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1116 (May 29, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1115 (May 28, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1114 (May 27, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1113 (May 26, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1112 (May 25, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1111 (May 24, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1110 (May 23, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1109 (May 22, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1108 (May 21, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1107 (May 20, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1106 (May 19, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1105 (May 18, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1104 (May 17, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1103 (May 16, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1102 (May 15, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 1101 (May 14, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 1001-1100 (Feb. 4, 2016 - May 13, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 901-1000 (Oct. 27, 2015 - Feb. 3, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 801-900 (July 19, 2015 - Oct. 26, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 701-800 (April 10, 2015 - July 18, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 601-700 (Dec. 31, 2014 - April 9, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 201