WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative groups included those lobbying to "make America a better place to live," new IRS probe details indicate.
This level of inquiry goes beyond what the IRS admitted Friday, which was that it targeted groups with "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their names, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported Monday.
All three newspapers received draft findings from disclosures to congressional investigators by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.
The Post said it received its information from a congressional aide with knowledge of the findings. The Journal and Times didn't say.
The full TIGTA audit is to be released this week.
TIGTA's job is to audit, investigate and inspect the IRS to promote the fair administration of the federal tax system, its website says.
It is part of the Treasury but independent of the department and all Treasury offices, it says on its website.
Among the areas TIGTA investigates are alleged fraud and abuse in IRS programs and operations, the website states
At various points over the past two years, the Cincinnati IRS office, which is in charge of evaluating applications for tax-exempt status, focused on groups making statements that "criticize how the country is being run" and those involved in educating Americans "on the Constitution and Bill of Rights," the draft TIGTA report cited by the Post indicated.
By June 2011 some IRS specialists were probing applications of groups focusing on "government spending, government debt or taxes [and] education of the public by advocacy/lobbying to 'make America a better place to live,'" the report cited by the Journal indicated.
The TIGTA investigation also found the head of the IRS tax-exempt-organizations division knew as early as June 2011 conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted -- several months before Douglas Shulman, IRS commissioner at the time, denied to a congressional committee the agency was targeting conservative groups, the newspapers said.
The findings don't make clear who came up with the idea to give extra scrutiny to certain conservative groups, the Journal said.
But a government official told the Journal the final report will say IRS officials told investigators no one outside the IRS was involved in developing the profiling criteria.
The audit follows complaints last year by numerous Tea Party and other conservative groups they had been singled out and subjected to extreme and improper questioning.
Many groups say they were asked for donor lists and other sensitive information.
Lois Lerner, head of the IRS tax-exempt-organizations division, said Friday the agency was "apologetic" for "absolutely inappropriate" actions by lower-level workers.
Lerner was briefed on the effort in June 2011, the newspapers said. On Friday she said she learned of the profiling effort from news reports.
But the audit indicates she seemed to work hard to switch the focus from conservatives to all types of political advocacy groups, the Times said.
This level of inquiry goes beyond what the IRS admitted Friday, which was that it targeted groups with "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their names, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported Monday.
All three newspapers received draft findings from disclosures to congressional investigators by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.
The Post said it received its information from a congressional aide with knowledge of the findings. The Journal and Times didn't say.
The full TIGTA audit is to be released this week.
TIGTA's job is to audit, investigate and inspect the IRS to promote the fair administration of the federal tax system, its website says.
It is part of the Treasury but independent of the department and all Treasury offices, it says on its website.
Among the areas TIGTA investigates are alleged fraud and abuse in IRS programs and operations, the website states
At various points over the past two years, the Cincinnati IRS office, which is in charge of evaluating applications for tax-exempt status, focused on groups making statements that "criticize how the country is being run" and those involved in educating Americans "on the Constitution and Bill of Rights," the draft TIGTA report cited by the Post indicated.
By June 2011 some IRS specialists were probing applications of groups focusing on "government spending, government debt or taxes [and] education of the public by advocacy/lobbying to 'make America a better place to live,'" the report cited by the Journal indicated.
The TIGTA investigation also found the head of the IRS tax-exempt-organizations division knew as early as June 2011 conservative groups were being inappropriately targeted -- several months before Douglas Shulman, IRS commissioner at the time, denied to a congressional committee the agency was targeting conservative groups, the newspapers said.
The findings don't make clear who came up with the idea to give extra scrutiny to certain conservative groups, the Journal said.
But a government official told the Journal the final report will say IRS officials told investigators no one outside the IRS was involved in developing the profiling criteria.
The audit follows complaints last year by numerous Tea Party and other conservative groups they had been singled out and subjected to extreme and improper questioning.
Many groups say they were asked for donor lists and other sensitive information.
Lois Lerner, head of the IRS tax-exempt-organizations division, said Friday the agency was "apologetic" for "absolutely inappropriate" actions by lower-level workers.
Lerner was briefed on the effort in June 2011, the newspapers said. On Friday she said she learned of the profiling effort from news reports.
But the audit indicates she seemed to work hard to switch the focus from conservatives to all types of political advocacy groups, the Times said.