Monterey, CA Republican Non-Profits Targeted For Screening Out Of Washington D.C. I. R. S. Office, Not Cincinnati

View From A Non-Profit Serving Seniors In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside and Soledad California

The plot in the IRS scandal continues to thicken, with the news pushing the story to the front page of the Wall Street Journal yesterday.  Top officials had been telling the public and the Obama administration that the targeting of non-profits with tea party and other Republican terms in their title was done by a rogue group of employees in a small office in Cincinnati Ohio.  However, that turned out to be false.  Elizabeth Hofacre from the  Cincinnati office told investigators that she was a pawn being supervised by an attorney in the Washington D.C. office named Carter Hull. "I was essentially a front person because I had no autonomy or authority to act on [applications] without Carter Hull's actions or input," she told investigators.  Ms. Hofacre told investigators she was furious when she saw press reports blaming the incidents on the Cincinnati office because she had personally handled many of the cases while being micro-managed by this attorney in the Washington D.C. office.  This news will likely set of an explosive debate in Congress about how such an important government arm can go so rogue with such an important job such as approving an organization's non-profit status.  Filing the required paperwork and answering questions from I.R.S. agents is an arduous and timely task and should not be complicated by someone with a political agenda.  It will be interesting to see how this case unfolds as we find out who knew what and when, and why nothing was done to stop this until recently.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.