A detailed fact-check published Monday tore into an IRS official’s claim that the agency’s scrutiny of conservative groups started in response to an influx of nonprofit applications, showing the practice started well before the forms started flooding in.
The piece in The Washington Post disputed a central claim
that Lois Lerner, head of the exempt organizations division, and other IRS officials made as they admitted to targeting conservative groups for additional scrutiny as they sought tax-exempt status.
Lerner claimed they did so in response to a “very big uptick” between 2010 and 2012 in the number of applications for a status known as 501(c)(4).
Indeed, there was an uptick recorded in that time period. But, as the Post wrote, “it was relatively small.”
“The real jump did not come until 2011, long after the targeting of conservative groups had been implemented,” the Post wrote.
Fox News has the full article
