'DC is like a black hole.' -- Cincinnati Group Manager

Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5172

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch today released 105 pages of newly obtained Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "302" documents revealing that, beginning in 2010 and lasting through the Obama reelection campaign in 2012, the IRS orchestrated an apparently deliberate policy of burying conservative groups' tax exemption applications in bureaucratic delays. Interviews with numerous Cincinnati IRS employees in mid-2013 reveal that "Tea Party" group applications were automatically denied approval and assigned to a special "Group 7822" for an extended "inventory" process. FBI 302 documents are detailed narratives of FBI agent investigations.

According to a Cincinnati "Group Manager" interview in July of 2013:

Group 7822 was composed of 12 to 15 people and was simply a place for the Tea Party cases to be held in inventory while the agent waited to receive guidance from the Washington office. There had been no precedence previously on these issues. If the case said it supports politics and political activity, it would be put into Group 7822. [Redacted] and then [Redacted] held the cases in inventory.

A second Cincinnati Group Manager interviewed also interviewed in July 2013told the FBI 302 interviewers a similar story, pinning the blame directly on the IRS Washington headquarters:

In the 14-month period when [Redacted] had the cases, he would ask for updates on guidance and was told they were still waiting on DC. He recalls receiving emails with contradictory guidance on whether the 501-c-3 or 501-c-4 cases should be denied. It was his understanding that a team would come and work the Tea Party cases when the guidance was provided ... Nobody told him directly where the delay was in resolving the Tea Party issue. DC is like a black hole.

The FBI 302 interviews with Cincinnati IRS employees reveal that the agency adopted a series of policies seemingly assuring that Tea Party and other conservative group tax exempt applications would not be approved before the November 2012 presidential election. The strategy relied upon the IRS' multi-tier "bucketing" system that determined from the time an application was received whether it would be quickly approved or indefinitely delayed.

The first bucket – the "incomplete bucket" – automatically kicked the application back to the applicant because of missing documents. The second bucket – the "merit close" – meant the application met all the criteria and was quickly approved. The third and fourth buckets meant that other issues needed to be addressed by the applicant. According to FBI interviews with Cincinnati agency employees, top Washington IRS officials issued directives making certain that no BOLO (Be on the Look Out) Tea Party applications could be put in the "merit closed" bucket.

The strategy began in 2010, when the IRS Washington headquarters created its "BOLO" list and applied the term "Tea Party...

MORE: www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-fbi-2013-interviews-cincinnati-officials-reveal-orchestrated-irs-policy-burying-tea-party-tax-exemption-applications-leading-obama-reelection