Liberal Forum

Liberal groups got IRS scrutiny, too, inspector general finds.

A federal watchdog has identified as many as 146 cases in which the Internal Revenue Service may have targeted liberal-leaning groups for extra scrutiny based on their names or political leanings, a finding that could undermine claims that conservatives were unfairly targeted under President Barack Obama.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reviewed cases between May 2010 and May 2012, around the same period TIGTA previously examined in a 2013 report that faulted the IRS for using inappropriate political criteria to select groups for heightened scrutiny.

That earlier report found that 96 groups with names referencing "Tea Party," "Patriot" or "9/12" were selected for intensive review, and the House Ways and Means Committee later identified another 152 right-leaning groups that were subjected to scrutiny.

Those findings fueled accusations by Republican lawmakers that the Obama administration engaged in politically motivated targeting of conservatives.

But Democrats have long challenged those claims, arguing that liberal-leaning groups were given close scrutiny alongside the conservative groups.

The 2013 TIGTA report, they argued, was based on selective criteria that omitted numerous nonconservative groups that were also subjected to close IRS review.

The new TIGTA report examines a broader range of criteria used by the IRS at the time, including groups affiliated with the now-defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), as well as others referencing "Progressive," "Green Energy," "Medical Marijuana" and "Occupy."

Together, the watchdog identified 146 cases in which the IRS examined left-leaning groups for suspicion of engaging in disallowed political activity.

Eighty-three of those were definitively chosen for scrutiny because of the selection criteria, the inspector general found; the report could not definitively determine how the other cases were chosen.

The Washington Post reviewed a version of the TIGTA report dated Sept. 28 that has been circulated to various lawmakers and committees on Capitol Hill.

The full report is set to be released to the public Thursday.

The new report reiterates the inspector general's earlier criticism of the IRS review process at the time, calling it "inappropriate" to target groups for scrutiny based on their names rather than on actual evidence of illicit political activity that would leave them ineligible for tax exemptions.