Received this press release from the Clear Lake Tea Party:
CONTACT:
Mary Huls
832-618-6575
mhuls912@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Clear Lake Tea Party Reveals IRS Misconduct in 2010
May 20, 2013 (Clear Lake, TX) – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) conducted an intrusive and illegal intelligence gathering and intimidation effort against the Clear Lake Tea Party (CLTP) as part of a larger policy directed at American tea parties. The CLTP submitted an application for a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status on November 23, 2009, and then after unwarranted delay, the founder of the CLTP queried the IRS in the summer of 2010 regarding the status of our application. We noted that many tea parties that had filed earlier than us had already received their exemption status in a quick and straightforward manner.
However, on July 12, 2010 the CLTP received an additional information request from Elizabeth Hofacre in the Cincinnati, Ohio office of the IRS demanding 19 more non-tax related items to complete our application. The CLTP Board was duly alarmed by the broad and personal nature of the information required which we would be required to declare under penalties of perjury. We judged the questions to be far outside the normal purview of a nominal request for a tax exempt designation. For example:
- Provide a list of speakers and their qualifications for events you have had in the last year (What qualifications are needed for public speaking under the first amendment?)
- Provide copies of information found on Facebook and Twitter (Why are they asking for information they can easily access?)
- Explain your relationship with the King City Patriots (They meant King Street Patriots – but what business is it of theirs what our relationship is?)
- Explain the Operation Pink Slip program and provide literature concerning this program. How did you decide who would be “fired”? (This was a viral grassroots strategy in which hundreds of tea parties were engaged, and the IRS demanded to know our thought processes?)
While CLTP was prepared and willing to provide additional clarification of the information on our initial application, we were convinced that we had already been investigated by the IRS case agent and were possibly being set up for a perjury charge. These questions and others in conjunction with the cover letter demanding, “…the information you submit should be accompanied by the following declaration:
‘Under penalty of perjury, I declare that I have examined this information, including accompanying documents, and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the information contains all the relevant facts relating to the request for the information, and the facts are true, correct, and complete.’”
We determined an inadvertent act of omission by one of our members might set them or us up for federal prosecution.
Consequently, the CLTP withdrew our 501(c)(4) application and filed instead as a Texas nonprofit corporation that scrupulously pays its taxes in order to practice our First Amendment right of free speech. CLTP wants to be clear that we have never given over a list of our members or donors to any outside source.
About the Clear Lake Tea Party: The Clear Lake Tea Party is a nonprofit corporation made up of conservative Americans who uphold the US Constitution, educate the public, and hold our elected officials accountable. They are Citizen Lobbyists who monitor & lobby the Texas Legislature and the U.S. Congress. They are Taxpayer Advocates who stand up for all hard-working Americans. Mary Huls, of Friendswood, is the current President of the CLTP. Further information can be found at www.clearlaketeaparty.com.
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Mary Benton with Click2Houston reported on this abuse Monday.There really isn’t much to add, I mean, how many times can you say “outraged” when talking about the Obama administration. Sen. John Cornyn had it right this morning when he said that the administration isn’t credible.
Clear Lake Tea Party even included the IRS documents to back up their claim:
Clear Lake Tea Party IRS Documents
I don’t think that comparisons to the Nixon administration are adequate. The Obama administration makes Nixon’s team look like amateurs. From Sen. John Cornyn:
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator – Texas
For Immediate ReleaseCONTACT: Megan Mitchell, (202) 224-0704
Drew Brandewie, (202) 224-0703
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Cornyn: Administration Has Credibility Gap‘Unfortunately, so far the Obama Administration has valued its agenda more than its credibility.’
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) today called on members of the Obama Administration to begin rebuilding the American peoples’ trust by focusing on their credibility, rather than their political agenda. You can watch Sen. Cornyn’s full speech here. Excerpts of his remarks are below:
“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our founders pointed out in the Federalist Papers and elsewhere that a concentration of powers in the hands of a few is the very definition of tyranny.
“And we’ve learned from hard experience over the course of our nation’s history that when government thinks it knows best, particularly here in Washington in a country as big and diverse as ours is, that the natural tendency then in Washington is to try to suppress the voices of those who see things differently.
“Over the last week, a series of events have highlighted the Administration’s massive credibility gap. First we learned more details about the coordinated attempt to misrepresent the September 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
“Then we learned this last week that a senior IRS official had acknowledged that her agency deliberately targeted certain political speech and activity for harassment using the instruments of power given to the Internal Revenue Service, perhaps the most awesome, pervasive and potentially intrusive power the federal government has, in the hands of that agency.
“On top of all that, the top administrator of Health and Human Services, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, has been soliciting funds from the very industries she regulates.
“So whether the issue is a terrorist attack in Libya, political and partisan abuses by the IRS, or efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services to shake down the health insurance industry they regulate, it appears that the birds have come home to roost, that the founders warned us about, the concentration of government power invariably leads to abuse of that power and it’s the same old story of human frailties over and over again.
“If we will try to work hard to regain the public’s credibility and we will simply do our work and respect the wisdom of the ages when it comes to concentration of power and its impact on individual liberty, and the temptation when power is absolute to see that power corrupted and abuse that power when it comes to dealing with the American people.
“Unfortunately, so far the Obama Administration has valued its agenda more than its credibility. Without regaining credibility, we will never regain the public’s trust, and without that trust, it will be much, much harder to solve America’s biggest problems. That is the biggest single challenge to President Obama’s second-term agenda. And to our ability as Americans to show that this 200-plus year experiment in self-government actually works.”
Senator Cornyn serves on the Finance and Judiciary Committees. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.
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