IRS Timeline

The Internal Revenue Service has illegally targeted Tea Party groups and individuals with every means at their disposal. When the truth was brought to light, investigation into the IRS’ practices and the people responsible was obstructed at every turn.

This timeline collects all the events in the long struggle against the IRS’ targeting – see for yourself.

2013

May 10

IRS admits targeting "Tea Party" and "Patriot" groups for harassment

Today the Tea Party Patriots, the nation’s largest tea party organization, rejected the apology by the IRS for targeting tax-exempt groups for further review during the 2012 election cycle and demanded the immediate resignations of all of those involved in the deliberate harassment of Tea Party Patriots and similar groups. News reports indicated today that Lois Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups at the IRS, blamed the targeting of organizations that included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their tax-exempt applications on “low-level workers in Cincinnati.”

May 11

New evidence: IRS targeted Tea Party groups since 2011

“Yesterday we learned that the IRS lied to Congress and the American citizens when Douglas Schulman said there was ‘absolutely no targeting’ of tea party groups who applied for nonprofit status. Today we are learning that the IRS lied when they said that only ‘low-level employees’ were to blame for outrageous and egregious overreach and abuse of power.”

May 17

TPP demands tax exempt official be terminated

Tea Party Patriots sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service Chief Counsel demanding they preserve all documents, emails, phone records, and other correspondence related to the targeting of tea party groups.

May 20

REIN IN THE IRS: Tea Party Patriots to Protest IRS Offices Nationwide

The Tea Party Patriots will host demonstrations at IRS offices across the country on Tuesday, May 21 at noon local time in order to protest the gross abuse of power in targeting tea party and grassroots organizations for harassment.

May 21

REIN IN THE IRS: Rallies a Huge Success

The Tea Party Patriots will host demonstrations at IRS offices across the country on Tuesday, May 21 at noon local time in order to protest the gross abuse of power in targeting tea party and grassroots organizations for harassment.

June 20

“Audit the IRS” Rally a Resounding Success

Yesterday, over 10,000 Tea Party activists from Pennsylvania, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and many other states gathered in D.C. to oppose IRS intimidation. The Rally was a resounding success by all relevant measures – media organizations across the political spectrum attended and followed the rally, including Breitbart.com, Wall Street JournalThe Washington Times, C-SPAN, and CNN.

August 9

Administration fails to stop discrimination; Tea Party groups still targeted by IRS

Months After Scandal Broke, No Action Taken by Administration to Stop Discrimination.

2014

February 27

Jenny Beth Martin testifies before congress on IRS targeting

“Tea Party Patriots received a call just before the hearing.  The IRS finally has decided — after 3 years, 2 months, and 10 days, after thousands of man-hours, after tens of thousands of dollars in legal and accounting fees – to approve our 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. And this is not political?”

March 5

IRS' Lois Lerner refuses to testify

“When Lois Lerner pleads the Fifth, it’s crystal clear to all Americans that there’s more than just a ‘smidgeon’ of corruption in the Obama Administration.”

May 21

Issa subpoenas DOJ on IRS Targeting

This bill also makes elected officials, administration appointees, and their staff more accountable by placing strict sanctions on those who would seek to operate within a shadow government by using personal or secret email accounts for conducting government business.

June 13

IRS claim they "lost" more than two years of Lois Lerner's mail

“This story about Obama’s IRS ‘losing’ more than two years worth of Lois Lerner’s email is as absurd as the claim that 18 ½ minutes of tape recorded conversations between President Nixon and Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman were “accidentally” erased. It doesn’t pass the smell test and smacks of obstruction of justice.”

August 25

IRS claim they "lost" more than two years of Lois Lerner's mail

On Friday, attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service said that Lois Lerner’s missing emails, and all government records for that matter, are backed up by the federal government in case of a disaster.  However, the attorneys stated that these back-up records are too onerous to search.

September 4

IRS e-mails reveal the use of needless intimidation of Tea Party groups

“One more layer of the IRS scandal has been exposed.  It is unconscionable for the government to be conducting “secret research projects” of individuals and organizations based on their beliefs.”

September 5

Senate Democrats' investigation into IRS targeting a "Whitewash"

Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, blasted the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations and Senator Carl Levin’s (D-MI) report on the so-called “investigation” into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of tea party groups.

September 16

TPP supports Mark Meadows' bill to improve e-mail retention laws

This bill also makes elected officials, administration appointees, and their staff more accountable by placing strict sanctions on those who would seek to operate within a shadow government by using personal or secret email accounts for conducting government business.

October 24

DC Court dismisses almost all counts brought against the IRS

The U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia dismissed almost all counts brought by more than 40 tea party groups against the IRS in two lawsuits because the IRS had granted the groups their tax-exempt status in the interim.

December 23

House publishes Darrell Issa's report on IRS targeting

The report represents findings from the review of over 1.3 million pages of documents and 52 transcribed interviews with IRS, Treasury, and Justice Department employees.

2015

February 25

Lois Lerner collected $ 129,000 in bonuses

“Millions of hardworking Americans are hurting and struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, it’s buckets of cash for the woman who persecuted her president’s perceived enemies.”

June 26

The IRS cover-up is reaching epic levels

J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, testified to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that IRS employees erased computer backup tapes shortly after officials discovered thousands of emails related to the tax agency’s Tea Party scandal had been lost.

As many as 24,000 emails were lost because 422 backup tapes were “magnetically erased” around March 4, 2014.

July 23

New Docs Reveal IRS Deliberately Targeted Donors to Obama Critics

“Make a donation to an opponent of the President’s policies, get audited. According to these new IRS documents – which we’re just now seeing, thanks to Judicial Watch and its FOIA lawsuits – that was standard operating procedure at […] the Internal Revenue Service, in the months leading up to the President’s 2012 reelection campaign.”

July 29

Jenny Beth Martin Testifies Before the Senate on the IRS Targeting Scandal

On July 29th both Tea Party Patriots CEO and Co-Founder Jenny Beth Martin, and Tea Party Patriots legal counsel Cleta Mitchell appeared before the Senate Subcommittee on oversight, agency action, federal rights and federal courts to give testimony on the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups.