[ April 24, 2024 ]
The Internal Revenue Service was forced to apologize to a pro-Israel group, Z Street, after federal scrutiny revealed the agency had wrongfully delayed its nonprofit status for six-plus years.
The apology puts to rest a long-running IRS exemption scandal, one that started under the Barack Obama administration and that saw the holdup or halt of nonprofit applications from conservative and patriotic groups.
The holdups were seen by many as a means of helping Obama win reelection and avoid critical coverage.
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The IRS had initially flagged Z Street’s application in 2010.
Breitbart has more:
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) formally apologized last week to a pro-Israel group called Z Street for a six-year delay in processing its application for non-profit status — a delay that was a result of the unconstitutional scrutiny of conservative groups in general.
The settlement marked the end of the last of the IRS scandal cases, most of which were settled last year with a government apology and payout.
The IRS flagged Z Street‘s application in 2010 as a result of bias against Israel within the Obama administration, as well as an administrative error that the government admits in the settlement agreement.
That error was to consider pro-Israel groups under a set of more stringent criteria, under the bizarre rationale that since terrorism happened in Israel, against Israeli targets, funds for pro-Israel causes posed a risk of supporting terrorism.
In addition, the government admits that the IRS had developed a specific memorandum on “Occupied Territory Advocacy” that could have affected Z Street’s tax-exempt application — but it says that the memo is lost.
Left unexamined is the question of whether Z Street was singled out as part of a deliberate policy by the Obama administration to punish American charities whose work might have benefited Israeli citizens living in Judea and Samaria — i.e. in the territories the Obama administration envisioned for a Palestinian state. (As Phyllis Chesler points out, the IRS showed few, if any, concerns about pro-Palestinian charity groups.)
The far-left J Street group, which worked closely with the Obama administration, publicly announced in 2010 that it would lobby the U.S. Treasury to target those charities. Shortly thereafter, Z Street’s tax-exempt application hit a wall at the IRS.
In any case, the Department of Justice declared that the settlement reinforced the government’s commitment to “equal treatment under the law,” and the IRS acknowledged that “criteria for selecting tax-exempt applications and/or tax- exempt entities for IRS review should focus on the activities of the organizations and whether they fulfill the requirements of the law, and not on the applicants’ political viewpoints.”
Six years too late, of course — and without any punishment of the IRS officials involved, nor sufficient explanation about how much the higher-ups in the Obama administration and the Democratic Party knew about what the IRS was doing.
In fact, some of the Democratic leaders who called on the IRS to do exactly what it did remain unapologetic. And had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential election, there is no doubt that the Democrats would have tried to pass laws to legalize what the IRS had done.
As Lori Lowenthal Marcus, Z Street’s founder, told Chelser, “I very much doubt ours and the Tea Party cases would have settled had this new administration not been in office.”
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17 Comments
6 years ago
This lays nothing “to rest”. It’s ongoing. Until these bureaucracies have been totally cleaned, every existing employee fired and replaced, these atrocities will continue.
6 years ago
If Dem/Hillary mafia was running the admin they would still not get it !
Hillary Left/Liberal media/Mafia runs fake investigation. Nobody is touching the mafia itself. And Hillary mafia killed another witness to email investigation http://tinyurl.com/y8p9cv5l
Nobody even investigates it bcoz Hillary gang is running FBI/DOJ/state dept/NSA.
6 years ago
Humanity / Mankind (All non muslims, non “progressive”) dodged a killer bullet when Killery lost the presidential elections!!
God Bless Trump!!!
6 years ago
The true villains behind the Gibson Guitar raid are revealed.
Obama’s corrupt DOJ. I wonder how many other companies on the ” “Leaked” Republican donor lists were extorted by Obama.
Armed swat teams from the Fish and Wildlife service shackle and imprison the secretaries and a janitor, Extort fines from Gibson Guitars the fines payable to appointed agency slush funds of Obama corrupt Fish and Wildlife service,
All kept away from the prying eyes of the US House oversight Committee These funds would naturally kick back to Obama’s re election bid.
This could bring forth hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits for corporations to be paid back, because Obama used union thugs, armed government agency and targeted companies with teams of prosecutors with frivolous evidence and was obviously purely political.
#1 punishment for donating to the opposing political candidate before and during election
#2 extort millions in fines payable to slush funds within appointed agencies that kick back without oversight to your own re election fund.
http://humanevents.com/2014/05/30/the-true-villains-behind-the-gibson-guitar-raid-are-revealed/
6 years ago
Reply to
762x51FMJ
I knew Gibson got screwed over by the gubmint a few years back, but I didn’t know they eventually got their wood back; glad to see they got a sense of humor about the whole ordeal in calling it the “government series”.
6 years ago
Another shovel full of obama removed from America. There is a lot more to go, the start has been made.
6 years ago
Boycott Israel Movement Nominated for 2018 Nobel Peace Prize http://theantimedia.org/boycott-israel-nominated-2018-nobel-peace-prize/?utm_source=The+Anti-Media+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3182426796-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_177e8c8195-3182426796-25645381
6 years ago
Wall Street Journal only mainstream media that has given this issue its due. NY Times and WashPost ignore. This is a major stain on Obama’s IRS so Lefty media pretending this IRS confession of wrongdoing did not happen.
6 years ago
The US federal government is rotten w/corruption at all levels and in all agencies.
6 years ago
So many even in our own government are against Israel…
6 years ago
And the Trump camp is ridiculed for suggesting the FBI and DOJ were weaponized against them as well?
6 years ago
“the memo is lost.” F-ing IRS gets away without punishment. The payout was taxpayer money, simple electronic bank transfer and no IRS s-bag was ever sentenced much less sent to prison. And the IRS is still quick to F- you over if something looks wrong.
6 years ago
The IRS doesn’t do this kind of stuff … PEOPLE DO. Find these people and put them in jail. And find the missing memos (an OBozo fav) and release them all.
6 years ago
0-bummer’s administration has many apologies to make. Not all that likely when you consicers his left overs that are still there.
6 years ago
Uhhh… the IRS is an ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL agency. Setup by communist who call themselves Demoncraps now. Always changing their names to escape detection.
Every time you write a check and put payable to the “IRS” you are committing treason against the United States of America.
It’s a private collecting agency of Congogress to escape blame of collecting taxes. You all been FOOLED!
6 years ago
Reply to
Alleged-Comment
Yes and only IF the People really knew that there is NO Constitutionl law that says they have to pay at the end of the year. And don’t tell me that the 14th Amendment give the IRS the rights to collect those so called taxes. The Federal Reserve is a private organization. The IRS collects so called taxes to pay dividends to the stock holders of Federal Reserve. Get smart people.
When you people sign a W-2, you are signing a contract with the IRS. This is why they can come and take your personnel property if you don’t pay up. There is a remedy here and it’s simple. Reserve your Consitutional rights by sighning in red ink the following: I reserve my rights under UCC 1-308 & it’s predecessor UCC 1-207 Without Prejudice. (UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE). You need to study those laws because you will be challenged.
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