On Friday, the IRS apologized for singling out conservative groups, especially organizations that had “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names, for additional reviews during the 2012 election.
According to the Associated Press, Lois Lerner, who “heads the IRS unit that overseas tax-exempt groups,” said such groups were targeted and scrutinized excessively to see if they were in violation of their tax-exempt status.
At a conference in Washington, Lerner “said organizations that included the words ‘tea party’ or ‘patriot’ in their applications for tax-exempt status” were targeted by IRS workers in Cincinnati and conceded it was wrong.
“The IRS would like to apologize for that,” said Lois Lerner, the chief IRS official in charge of tax-exempt organizations
“That was wrong,” said Lerner. “That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review.”
The IRS harassment of conservative groups was not politically motivated, claims the IRS. Furthermore, Lerner says the practice of targeting conservatives was done without the knowledge of top IRS officials and was the work of lower-level staff in Cincinatti.
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