The IRS has told a federal court that they’ve recently identified almost 7,000 more documents that could contain information on how the agency targeted the tax-exempt applications of Tea Party organizations or other conservative political groups starting back in 2010, according to a court document.
But IRS in the document would not commit to a timeline for releasing the documents.
The revelation of thousands of unreleased documents was made in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that specializes in filing, and in many instances litigating, FOIA requests.
For Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, the admission from the IRS represents a significant breakthrough. “Our attorneys knew that there were more records to be searched but the Obama IRS ignored this issue for years,” Fitton said in a press release.
The IRS has never admitted that any high-level employees of the agency knew the targeting was taking place. But Lois Lerner, the IRS employee at the center of the scandal, did apologize for the actions, in response to what was later revealed to be a planted question during a question and answer session at a conference.
As part of the targeting, organizations with the words “tea party” or “patriots” in the name of the applications were singled out for tougher, more lengthy questioning about their activities. As a result, many of those groups were delayed by many months in receiving their tax-exempt designation from the IRS, slowing the organizations’ ability to engage in political activity.
Judicial Watch’s FOIA requests have continued to hold the agency’s feet to the fire, even years after the events. In 2015, Judicial Watch released documents from a FOIA request that suggested the IRS targeted some of the donors of the groups who were put through the extra scrutiny.
