OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A top, long-serving Democratic senator has been accused of attempting to utilize the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service as political tools against conservative organizations.
“Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., called for revoking a tax exemption for a conservative group for not masking up and socially distancing during the pandemic, insisted on a slew of investigations of other conservative groups, and pressed for the Internal Revenue Service to expand its reach,” the Daily Signal reported exclusively last week.
The outlet added: “A total of 176 pages of correspondence from and to Whitehouse was obtained from the IRS by the conservative watchdog group American Accountability Foundation through the Freedom of Information Act and shared with The Daily Signal.”
“It’s abundantly clear that [Whitehouse] is trying to take the 87,000 new IRS agents and put them to work investigating me and my friends because he doesn’t like their politics,” said Tom Jones, president and founder of the American Accountability Foundation, in an interview with The Daily Signal.
The dates of the letters Whitehouse sent span from Jan. 19, 2021, just a day before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, to May of this year, the Daily Signal added.
“It’s Lois Lerner on steroids,” Jones said regarding the Whitehouse correspondence, a reference to the IRS official at the center of an Obama-era scandal in which she was accused of inappropriately targeting Tea Party groups ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
“The Lois Lerner stuff was a mid-level bureaucrat abusing [her] power to investigate conservative groups,” Jones told the Daily Signal. “This is a U.S. senator basically trying to turn the heat up on investigations by the Internal Revenue Service.”
“So, if Sheldon Whitehouse had his way,” Jones said, “Lois Lerner would just look like a test run of what Sheldon Whitehouse has in mind.”
In the Jan. 2021 letter, Whitehouse demanded that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig revoke Turning Point USA’s non-profit status because members of the organization held an event at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate where no one wore masks and did not engage in social distancing.
TPUSA, founded by Charlie Kirk, attempts to develop and train younger Americans to become conservative leaders.
“Tax-exempt status provides a substantial benefit to charitable organizations and reflects the federal government’s endorsement of an organization’s activities,” Whitehouse wrote to the IRS chief. “Organizations that knowingly put in danger minors entrusted to their care should not enjoy the benefits of tax-exempt status. Accordingly, I urge the IRS to review whether it should revoke Turning Point USA’s tax-exempt status.”
Rettig wrote back that by law, he was not able to “disclose any actions we may or may not take on this information.”
“What’s important about these letters is it makes it very clear that a U.S. senator is attempting to essentially encourage the IRS to investigate his political opponents,” Jones told the outlet. “He never mentions there is a vast group of left-wing nonprofits whose funding I envy. … You don’t hear a peep from Sheldon Whitehouse about New Venture Fund, Arabella Advisors, Sixteen Thirty, a laundry list of folks on the Left.
“It’s simply wrong, an abuse of his position,” Jones added. “Thankfully, the IRS hasn’t indulged in what Whitehouse is asking them to do, but you have to remain vigilant. He is a United States senator, close with the [Biden] White House.
“At some point, the dam could break on this and conservative nonprofits could get a knock on their door from IRS agents because a U.S. senator wants them to investigate his political opponents,” he said.
Several Republicans have vowed to take aim at a Democratic initiative to hire some 87,000 new IRS staffers and agents now that they have retaken control of Congress, including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
“The days of this chamber being treated as Pelosi’s house instead of the people’s house are over,” she said on the House floor Friday. “The American people will once again be allowed into this chamber to see their representatives at work.
“Republicans made a lot of promises on the campaign trail,” she said. “It’s time we make good on those promises.
“We must defund the 87,000 IRS agents that the Democrats hired, increase domestic energy production, get to the bottom of Hunter Biden’s corruption, and, of course, the big guy, who is at least compromised by 10%,” the representative added.
“Republicans across America ran on these policies. God help us if we fail to deliver,” she said.
Now it’s time to deliver on our promises. pic.twitter.com/Ek1MS8ZusE
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) December 2, 2022
