IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office
Photo Credit: Getty ImagesBy John Parkinson and Steven Portnoy. The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.
Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.
As the House voted to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act Thursday evening, House Speaker John Boehner expressed “serious concerns” that the IRS is empowered as the law’s chief enforcer. Read more from this story HERE.
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IRS Grilled Tea Party Groups on Relationship to True the Vote
By Brandon Darby. At least two Texas Tea Party groups have reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) questioned them on their relationship to the election integrity organization True the Vote and its parent group, the King Street Patriots Tea Party.
True the Vote was created by the Houston-based King Street Patriots Tea Party group, and both groups were founded and led by Catherine Engelbrecht.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Robert Gonzalez of the Houston, TX area Clear Lake Tea Party revealed that he and his wife Lisa received the same type of probing and scrutinizing questions as other Tea Party and conservative groups, but theirs came with a specific question about one of Engelbrecht’s groups.
“The IRS wanted to know what our relationship was to ‘King City Patriots,’ but it was clear they meant Catherine Engelbrecht’s ‘King Street Patriots,’” said Gonzalez. “My wife Lisa founded this Tea Party, and of course we knew Catherine; everyone does. But to be specifically questioned by the federal government about her? If we had not previously known her, we would have thought she was of questionable character or something by them asking that,” he added.
Julie McCarty, president of the NE Tarrant Tea Party, another Tea Party leader from the Dallas, TX area, said she was also probed by the IRS about one of Engelbrecht’s efforts. “In the probing questions we received from the IRS, there was a question specifically asking us about our relationship to one of Catherine’s and True the Vote’s efforts named Verify the Recall,” said McCarty. Read more from this story HERE.
