The Internal Revenue Service specifically targeted conservative and progressive organizations, including the Occupy movement and groups that favor increased border security, according to the agency's inspector general, The Washington Post reports.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, re-examined cases from 2004 to 2013, which includes the time period that the inspector general reviewed in 2013, finding that the IRS chose groups for increased scrutiny based on political leanings. Conservatives highlighted this report as an indication that President Barack Obama's administration was targeting their opponents, but the latest report shows that progressive groups were singled out as well.
The 2013 report found that the IRS selected 96 groups whose names included "Tea Party," "Patriot" or "9/12" for additional, intensive review. The latest report found that the criteria the IRS used to select groups for additional scrutiny also included names that reference "Progressive," "Occupy," "Green Energy" and "Medical Marijuana."
"This was a case, as I said in the beginning, of gross mismanagement at the IRS, not political targeting," Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the House's primary tax oversight committee, told The Washington Times. "But that's not the political narrative the Republicans wanted, so they selectively ignored important facts to skew their 'investigation.'"
Texas Republican Rep. Kevin Brady, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, added that "this report reinforces what government watchdogs and congressional investigators have confirmed time and time again: bureaucrats at the IRS, such as Lois Lerner, arbitrarily and haphazardly administered the tax code and targeted taxpayers based on political ideology."
The report does note that, since the period reviewed ended, the agency has "completely revamped the process for reviewing tax-exempt applications," and recommends no further changes.
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