The Tea Party Patriots, along with other Tea Party groups across the country are protesting today at local IRS offices at noon local time. The protests are in response to the IRS’s admission that the agency has engaged in systemic harassment and targeting of conservative organizations.
For the past three years, the IRS has been targeting Tea Party Patriots, them and other conservative tax-exempt organizations for additional scrutiny, and has singled these organizations out for audits and invasive reviews of their tax-exempt applications.
“The IRS has demonstrated the most disturbing, illegal and outrageous abuse of government power,” said Don Woolley, of the Sahuarita Tea Party Patriots.
Woolley’s group, along with several southern Arizona Tea Parties, will be protesting outside the Tucson IRS office at 300 W. Congress. “We demand the immediate termination or resignation of all complicit in this activity and insist Congress investigate to determine if legal charges must be brought against those involved.”
Mcclatchy News reports that the “White House acknowledged Monday that senior aides to President Obama knew a month ago that the Internal Revenue Service had targeted conservative groups. Previously, the White House said that only White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler had been told of the investigation of the IRS, and that her office had been informed the week of April 22.”
The White House said that more senior advisers were told, including Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.