Tea Party Groups to IRS: 'Apology Not Accepted'

The White House and the Internal Revenue Service have apologized for the extra scrutiny of conservative political groups by the IRS during the 2012 presidential election, but "their apology is not accepted,” one tea party leader said Friday.

“What we've long suspected to be the case is now confirmed to be true,” said Niger Innis, chief strategist for TheTeaParty.net. “The Obama administration has used the IRS as a political weapon.

“The IRS may claim that it is ‘sorry,’” Innis continued in a statement. “But given the damage that has been done, their apology is not accepted.”

Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, told ABC News that “President Obama must also apologize for his administration ignoring repeated complaints by these broad grassroots organizations of harassment by the IRS in 2012, and make concrete and transparent steps today to ensure this never happens again.”

Tea Party Express founder Sal Russo told ABC that his group, formed as a PAC, never heard from the IRS but did hear from smaller Tea Party groups that complained of government scrutiny.

“On our bus tours, the local Tea Party groups were all screaming about it,” Russo told ABC. “It was so pronounced around the country that it was obvious that the tea party groups were being targeted.

“Not unlike any bureaucracy, the first reaction is to deny everything even when they don't know the facts," Russo said, adding that he was “glad they finally acknowledged what was obvious to everyone else.”

“We appreciate that the IRS acknowledged and apologized, but the real question is, how do we make sure that this never happens again?” asked Jackie Bodnar, spokeswoman for the tax-exempt tea-party group FreedomWorks. “All Americans, regardless of their philosophical beliefs, should be treated equally under the laws of the land.”

Earlier on Friday, Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, said that the agency singled out groups with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status.

In some cases, groups were asked for their donor lists, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

About 75 applications for tax-exempt status containing the words were added to 225 other applications that were singled out for additional scrutiny, Lerner said.

So far, none of the applications have been rejected, although some have been withdrawn, ABC reports. MORE http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/IRS-targets-conservative-groups/2013/05/10/id/503875?s=al&promo_code=1374D-1