Fighting the Weaponization of the IRS

Today on Sekulow, the Biden administration is weaponizing the IRS. How to fight back. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Hey, welcome to Sekulow. Folks, we have talked about, but let me just get into this with some more detail. The Biden administration, working alongside Democrats on Capitol Hill, attempting to once again weaponize the IRS.

Now we had some success in fighting back against this early. Remember, initially they wanted that provision in the reconciliation package that if you had $600 or more transactions in your bank account, they would just have access to your bank account. Then there was outrage over that because that was such a small amount over a year. Then they said, well, $10,000 in a year, but it's in a year.

So you think about, again, if you get paid and you spend some of that money or you move it, any kind of transaction, I mean, most people who are, if you're in the tax system, you've got $10,000 over a year moving in and out of your bank account. And it would allow them, without having to go to court, no court order necessary, to just go right in and start spying on your transactions and your bank accounts, which is what they've always wanted to have the ability to do. And you have to push back against these bureaucratic agencies, especially one like the IRS, which we've said over and over again, we believe is so just mired in controversy on targeting Americans, like they targeted conservative Americans, the Tea Party groups, the ACLJ representatives, the Christian group that was just targeted by the IRS, and they used the D to mean Republican. I mean, just trying to mislead people that, oh, if you believe in the word of God, you're likely a Republican group, so your taxes and status says, I don't know if you should receive that.

That's recent. But we know that in, so while those $600, the $10,000 provision, we were able to so far keep out of the reconciliation package. What we do know is two things. Still in it, it passed by the House, it's with the Senate now, is $80 billion new money for the IRS budget, $80 billion, and 87,000 new IRS enforcement agents, 87,000 new IRS enforcement agents. With that number of agents and that much money, do they even need those other provisions to harass Americans? Now, it may be more difficult for them.

They may have to take a few more steps before they can get into your bank account. Let me tell you some of those random audits that occur. I mean, there's going to be a lot more of those.

87,000 new agents out there, there's going to be a lot more random, and I put that in quotes, audits. We're prepared to fight back the ACLJ against this power grab by the IRS. We believe that they have, it's just incapable of self-correcting. They've shown time and time again now over a period of years that they can't get over what they did to those Tea Party groups, and that they still try to do it to groups that are similar situated.

They are so opposed to anyone who happens to be conservative. They don't need an IRS bailout of 80 billion more dollars and 87,000 new employees. What we need is a comprehensive tax reform, makes it easier to file taxes, and if they're right, if the Biden administration is right, that there's this lack of compliance. I believe a lot of that, not on people just trying to do the right thing and follow this complicated tax code, but that, again, make it less complicated, and you won't need 87,000 new bureaucrats to try and harass middle class Americans. That's who's targeted here.

It is middle class Americans that are targeting, high, high earners. IRS is seeing that they're making bigger transactions than that. The IRS is watching that carefully. Their tax returns are prepared by accountants and lawyers who specialize it, but most people don't have that kind of resources.

You may be able to go to an H&R block, something like that, to help you put it together, but you're not getting all of this advice to prepare you for potential IRS action. So what we've done at the ACLJ, what we've done on today's broadcast is put together for you how you fight back. Now, our first fight is to keep this out, keep this reconciliation bill from passing, and we've talked to senators. We feel like the longer that goes on, the better there, but we're ready to fight if it does, and we've beaten the IRS, and we'll beat them again if we have to, and we're not going to let this go unchecked. So on today's broadcast, we're going to walk you through how do you take on the behemoth of the Internal Revenue Service?

How do you fight back and win? That is what we're focusing on today on the broadcast. Support our work at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected, is there any hope for that culture to survive? And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. All right, welcome back to Secular Live.

This is Jordan Secular. We are taking your phone calls too because this really was the beginning of the battle against the deep state. It was under the Obama administration, so the battle was that much tougher because you didn't have allies at the Department of Justice. You didn't have an ally. I mean, you were fighting the IRS, the FBI, tried to go after our clients.

Sound familiar again? They tried to go after Mike, they still are, Mike Flynn, you know, President Trump. Different agency, same tactics. Yeah, but they were working together.

Oh yeah. I mean, remember, I remember the day in Washington, D.C., dad, when we were at our D.C. office and the FBI wanted to interview some of our clients and we said we are no longer cooperating with the IRS, we're going to court. No more negotiating. There was, the FBI was saying, well, they were interviewing one of our clients because if there was any potential wrongdoing, they wanted to get to the bottom of it. My trust level was zero at that point. Your trust level was zero. That was before all of this.

It was like 10 years before. And we said, we met with them. We did not let them meet with our clients. And we said, you know, we're not doing that. We are not going to participate in this because we think it's a charade. They would never tell us exactly what the point was, exactly what they were looking at was, and we were not going to put our clients in that situation. So what did we do? We went to federal court. You know what we ultimately got?

I'm going to play this soundbite first. And that is the IRS started doing this in 2010. So we're talking about 10 years ago. And for over two years, the media thought it was just a silly conspiracy theory. This is a bunch of right-wingers. They don't know what they're doing, but you know what it ended up resulting in? This.

They used names like Tea Party or Patriots, and they selected cases simply because the application had those names in the title. That was wrong. The IRS would like to apologize for that. Yeah. Well, first of all, I always said, and I'll say it again, that apology was not accepted.

We went to federal court to get justice. That's number one. Number two, they, they is what Lois Lerner says. She's the head of tax exempt. They, you mean you.

You came up with a be on the lookout list, a bolo list. So why are we bringing it up today? Because we've seen a culmination over the last months of all these faux investigations, Mueller and Ukraine and the Russiagate, and it ends up being nothing.

What happens each and every time? This is, you know, sometimes it's Congress, sometimes it's deep state actors. Here's one where it was not to a President.

It was to you. That's why we've named the film Targeting Us, The People's Fight Against the IRS. And it's available at ACLJfilms.com or Amazon Prime. And by the way, if you go to ACLJfilms.com or on Amazon Prime and look it up, you're going to see a lot of movies, several movies by the ACLJ. And we want to encourage you. We do these documentaries to watch them. You're going to see bits and pizzas of it and hear bits and pizzas of it today, but it is definitely worth watching.

You're going to learn a lot about what's happening. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is something, again, I want to, I mean, are we ready to start playing some clips for folks?

Let's do it. I mean, just so you get a sense, if you're listening, you're going to get a sense of, of what you will be seeing. Cause this is, this is visual too. But if you're watching on Facebook and Periscope as well, we wanted to just kind of give you some glimpse into why, because again, you know, I go back, it was like when I was talking to Sean Hannity about his book and, and how sometimes you've got to, you've got to take the time to retell stories because there's so many facts over such a long period of time. And you don't want to forget because you don't want history to repeat itself. And, and we don't want to have to continue battling the deep state forever. And so take a listen from the new documentary available at acljfilms.com or Amazon prime. It's free targeting us, the people's fight against the IRS and guys make sure I tweet out the link right after the show to the, to our website. So that people can see the film targeting us, the people's fight against the IRS.

Here's the first video clip, the opening sequence of the film. Corruption, not even mass corruption, not even a smidgen of corruption. It was the tip of the iceberg.

It was far worse than even we expected. The IRS has finally released a list of political groups. It has scrutinized. It was something that no one could believe our government was even capable of doing. They have way too much power and no accountability. Never before has the federal government tried to muzzle everyday Americans solely because of their political view.

That is as wrong as it gets. The lowest learner knew what was coming and it wasn't going to be pretty. We were fighting the United States of America.

At this point, we accidentally stumbled into the corruption that is going to be, and is the largest scandal in American history. My name is Kevin. I'm Toby Marie Walker, Tom Zawistowski, Eric Wilson, Mark Kent, Becky Garretson, Kara Waddell, and this, and this, and this is our story.

This is my story. Again, that movie's called Targeting Us. It's an ACLJ film. If you want to know about the deep state in action, in a real case that went to real court, that got a real result, then go to ACLJfilms.com or Amazon Prime, Targeting Us, the people's fight against the IRS.

And by the way, when you support the work of the ACLJ, guess what? We get to produce these documentaries. We're doing a documentary on Brunson. We're working on some other really great creative content. I can't give you the details of it yet, but it's something very innovative that's going to impact your family in a very good way.

So we're very excited about that. Content is important to the ACLJ. When you're supporting the ACLJ at ACLJ.org, especially when we're in a month like this month with a matching challenge campaign, you're supporting our work in courts around the country, here was multifaceted. This movie's the perfect example. Targeting Us, the people's fight against the IRS, the movie, was done to educate people about what was going on. At the same time, your donation support was supporting the movie and the production of the movie.

Guess what else was happening? We were in federal court winning the case, which we ultimately did. So that is your case. That's your support of the ACLJ in action. We had our clients testify before Congress.

You were testifying before Congress. Again, this was kind of a new step for the ACLJ because what happened was back in 2012, we started getting all these contacts. These are small groups. Again, I kind of make the comparison to what we're seeing today where we're helping these churches out in California or parents with the education issues. They can't afford law firms. They can't afford attorneys to handle these situations. These were small grassroots groups just trying to get their legal status so they could fundraise, so they could rent buses, so they could get insurance, things like so they could hold events and do so legally. They voluntarily submitted themselves to IRS oversight.

They weren't trying to break the law. We started getting calls and calls and calls and dozens of specific Tea Party groups and other conservative groups that were being harassed. What happened was they weren't being denied. They just kept getting more questionnaires, and finally these groups realized, wait, these questionnaires, this is not the normal IRS procedure.

This is directed at us. We're being targeted, it looks like, so we better talk to some lawyers. So they got to the American Center for Law, Justice and Debt. I mean, just to explain to our people where they support the work of the ACLJ, this was just a loan to get to that decision that we read from the IRS, the consent order saying they can never do this again or else and admitting the wrongdoing, admitting changing their procedures, gutting the IRS as the Washington Post called it, really changed how people even view the IRS these days. It took five years. So, I mean, it took considerable financial, those donations that come in to the ACLJ. This is five years of work representing, I mean, I could go through the list, I mean, we have it here.

There's a Colorado 912 Project, the American Patriots Against Government Excess, San Antonio Tea Party, Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots, Watumpka Tea Party, the OKCPIA Association, the Richmond Tea Party, Hawaii Tea Party, Rochester Tea Party. This list goes on for two more pages. For five years, we represented all these clients in federal court. So if you think your donations don't matter, folks, they absolutely do. It is the reason why we're able to take down government agencies like the IRS, which we did, and why we're able to fight so hard against the deep state and really put them under a microscope.

What we did, because of the work at the IRS, we decided to open up a unit inside the ACLJ called our Government Affairs Unit. I'm holding in my hand the first of the, this is the most recent report that that committee gives on the Freedom of Information Act litigation in our Government Accountability Project. That's just the beginning. And I want to tell you something. Your support makes this happen. So again, a huge thank you to all of you for standing with us. Let me remind you that this is a perfect month, and today's perfect too, to donate to the ACLJ because we have a matching challenge.

You may say, Jordan, I've heard you say that before. Let me explain what a matching challenge is because it goes through the entire month of March. A matching challenge is when we have a group of donors who are regular donors to ACLJ and they say, you know, we want to give you a boost month. So let your donors know, let people who might donate know that we're here and we've already committed to matching every single one of the new donations that come through.

So you see how quickly you can double the impact of your donation by donating today during our Match and Challenge Month at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

Folks, you're watching on Facebook and Periscope. Great numbers today. I think people are just reminding themselves about this IRS scandal and how bad it was and what the ACLJ was able to do to get justice for so many conservative groups. We represented the 40-plus groups who were willing to fight out the IRS, but by winning, we really won for so many other groups who maybe were a little bit afraid of taking on the IRS, weren't sure if they wanted to get involved in a legal matter. We see this time and time again at the ACLJ where people are very gung-ho at first about filing lawsuits and things like that.

Then suddenly, when you got to file a lawsuit, hey, it's a big deal even if it doesn't cost you anything. So the victory, though, isn't just for the 41 clients. The victory is for every one of those nonprofits out there on both sides of the aisle.

They can't be treated like this by the IRS ever again or else they're in serious trouble at the IRS, and the IRS admitted to viewpoint discrimination, viewpoint targeting, but it all started with these letters. And I want to play for you. So share this with your friends and family on Facebook and Periscope. This is a great show to share on Facebook and Periscope because it's very visual and it's still good for radio too because the audio is excellent. This is coming from our documentary. It's out on ACLJfilms.com or on Amazon Prime.

It's absolutely free. It's called Targeting Us, The People's Fight Against the IRS. Take a listen because this is how it all started. We go all the way through 2011 and we want to file our taxes. We want to do the right thing. We want to, you know, we're good citizens.

We're trying to help them help us. Nothing until we get into January of 2012. And in January 2012, I received this letter with a bunch of questions. And as the first course once we'd had with them at all, and it came out of the blue. We were just shocked.

I mean, it just came in the mail. And then I started to read these questions and that's when things really got interesting. By that time, it was two years later and we got a letter one after one evening from the IRS saying they wanted all this information.

It was a seven-page letter that we all knew immediately was not right. We finally get a letter from the IRS telling us that they will not approve our tax exempt status unless we answer almost 90 more questions. Otherwise, if you don't answer these, you'll be taken out and you can't have a tax exempt status. 30 questions, 70-some sub-bullets to it, a total of 88 different inquiries. I do audit litigation for a living against the IRS.

To me, that was like, whoa. The letter that I got from the IRS not only was filled with egregious questions, but it gave me a very short timeline and a window to answer those questions. I came in with the paperwork and I said, something's wrong here.

I don't know what it is. I'm not sure what's going on yet, but this is something's wrong with something's wrong. This is not, they shouldn't even be going in this direction at all. And in these questions were questions about family members of boards. There were questions about donors and activity beyond just the normal list of donors, but what their activities and affiliations were as well. So again, that is just how it all started. Those letters, letters about family members, letters about donor list, letters about content of speeches.

I mean, think about this. How many events do you attend like church and political events where do you have a transcript of the speech? I mean, no, especially a very local grassroots. You don't have a transcript.

You don't have video of it. Even these days with technology, these were very grassroots organizations and they wanted all, they wanted actually in some of the questions they wanted back door access to their websites so that they could go in and see the back door of the website to see what was going on, which would give them access to everything the organization had done, including decisions they had made like, Hey, we shouldn't be doing this. This would be wrong. So let's not put this in our website. I mean, that's not illegal to make a decision to say.

You could have discussions with your board. Right. I mean, so that's what they were. They wanted to see if they could bring criminal charges. You realize that just like they did with Mike Flynn, they were trying to find a way as we found out.

Yeah, we found the emails. Because we got the FBI, the FBI got involved. How could they bring criminal charges at least against one of these groups so that they'd all back off and that President Obama wouldn't have to deal with them.

Because their idea was if we could get one, just one case, you get one case that goes criminal. That's going to stop all these groups from having any kind of influence. It'll scare them, which was politically motivated. Jordan said in the order we got the settlement, they said they acknowledge viewpoint discrimination. That is one of the worst forms of discrimination. But like asking for donor list violates the first amendment of the United States constitution. Who your relatives spoke with on political campaigns violates freedom of association. What elected officials met violates, your members met with violates freedom of association.

What petitions you initiated violated the right to petition your government for a redress of a grievance. But it came to a point where we had to get involved. And you know, it's interesting as well that when you look at the timeline, so 2012, you know, this starts, the letters start, we start getting contacted because of what the IRS did. You know, we went public with this, those giant rallies on Capitol Hill we'd be speaking at with senators and members of Congress and grassroots leaders.

Thousands of people would show up on the grounds of the Capitol right in front of the US Capitol. It was being covered by all the news outlets. Guess what happened in 2014? This backfired on the Obama administration significantly. Not only did Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives, they took back the Senate.

So for President Obama's final two years in office, he had absolutely zero ability to pass any legislation. But I think it is important that how do we get involved? So the groups get the letters, then the ACLJ gets involved.

Yeah, let's go ahead and play it. For years, I had watched Fox News. And of course, Jay is a regular contributor and guest on Fox News. And I had always seen the things that ACLJ represented and the fights that they fight for people that are unlawfully prisoned in other countries and Christian groups. I had always admired him so much.

So Toby had gone through all the work. Well, then one day she called me and I was at one of the hospitals I was working at. She's like, hey, can you jump on a conference call at such and such time? And I'm like, well, I'll be on the road at that time. But if I call in from the car, yeah, what is it? She's like, we're going to be talking to the ACLJ.

And they want several of us on there to listen. I'm like, oh, OK, that's cool. So I left the place I was working at and headed on home. And I'm going down I-35.

And I can remember exactly where I was at. And the conference call started and Jay Sekulow comes on coming out of the speakers in my car. And I was just like, oh, my gosh, he's really talking to us. I remember he was on the call, but he just he listened. He didn't even say anything for like, I don't know, half an hour. OK. And these stories are coming through the phone lines from all these people saying, oh, yeah, they want to know what books we were reading and we want a book report or, you know, we wanted to know how many of your board members have ever run for political office.

And we want their family name, the names of their family members. And if any of them have run for political office and we want to know if they ever plan to run for political office, you're going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And Jay Sekulow broke in on the call and he just said, he said, I'm going to tell you right now, we will represent all of you for this. This is completely wrong. This is something that's I've never seen this before.

I've never heard of this before. And the ACLJ is going to stand up and fight for you in this case. And that was a huge relief because until then, we weren't sure how we're going to fight back. It's fighting the battles in courts. It's fighting the battles in Congress. It's fighting the battles in international courts for religious liberty, for freedom of speech, protecting your constitutional rights.

And again, at a time when we believe the ACLJ is needed now more than ever. So in a matching challenge month, we have a group of donors that is ready to match every donation that comes through. You double the impact your donation. Donate online today at ACLJ.org.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. So far too often in our country, and it's something that works throughout the world and kind of world history, but it's when you don't look back on history, it repeats itself. When you don't remember what had happened, especially bad actions, they have a kind of a sense of happening yet again and saying, oh, I can't believe this is happening. Well, you know, really, because you should have looked at what was happening eight years ago, 10 years ago. We're not talking about ancient history here either.

We're talking about pretty current, modern history. So as you know, at the ACLJ, we represented Tea Party groups that were being targeted by the IRS intentionally being put on Bolo beyond the lookout list by the IRS to silence the Tea Party movement after they showed their effectiveness in the midterm elections before it got to the general election when Barack Obama was up for reelection. We took on major IRS figures like Lois Lerner. You know that the IRS had to pay out millions to a lot of these groups. You know that the IRS had to agree that they would no longer conduct themselves this way if they were suspected of doing so.

They've already agreed that it was wrong, that putting together these groups, putting together these lists was wrong. But now we've got legislation moving, legislation like HR 1, which has a whole lot of bad things in it. One of the bad things in it, Than, is a total repeal of the ability for the IRS. It actually repeals the law that prohibits the IRS from targeting groups based off their political beliefs that does it in one line without telling you what he's even doing. Yeah, Jordan, I mean, look, all of HR 1 is a boondoggle. If you look at what happened in the 2020 election and you look at the worst aspects of it, HR 1 would really enshrine all of that, not in just the states that had already happened, but in states that had better elections. Jordan, you would say we would have to take all those worst aspects and apply them across the country. It's a DC takeover of elections.

It really is. But you're right. This one provision really hits close to home for us because we worked very hard in the wake of that IRS targeting scandal to make sure that it never happened again and successfully got Congress to enact this provision that said you cannot target based on viewpoint. You are forbidden from considering the viewpoint you from using these bolo lists when you consider tax exempt status. Jordan, that's been a part of the law for the last several years. This one line, it's section 4501 in HR 1. It repeals that prohibition. So if HR 1 would become the law of the land, the lowest learner rule, which we've dubbed it, would be removed and the lowest learner tactic of targeting groups and giving favorable treatment to those who hold one particular viewpoint or another.

Jordan, that would once again be permitted at the IRS. That is something we cannot allow. We've got to get this provision if it has any chance of this, which I think it's an uphill battle. We've got to make sure provisions like that are removed.

But there's a whole lot in HR 1. But the fact that they want to go back to a time when they could target groups without fear of losing their jobs, without fear of criminal investigation, civil violations, doing away with the, quote, lowest learner rule, just tells you how much they want to silence you as conservatives. They know conservative activist groups are powerful and strong and can make a difference. So what we're going to do is to play for you is to hear from those groups who are targeted the first time as a reminder to never let that targeting happen again. We can fight back. We did fight back.

We should never allow that kind of targeting to happen again. That's why we're going to play for you so you can hear from those groups this special encore presentation. This is a critical time at the ACLJ to support our work financially.

This is a matching challenge month. And I know that you've heard me say that before if you're a regular listener to the broadcast, you watch the broadcast. But let me just tell people why who are thinking about making a financial contribution to the ACLJ or into the work that we do, where that goes. Well, you know, obviously, to do this broadcast every day to get this out costs resources. But of course, most of our resources go to fighting the battles.

Of course, using our broadcast is important to that. But it's fighting the battles in courts. It's fighting the battles in Congress. It's fighting the battles in international courts. So all of our international work that we do all over the world for religious liberty, for freedom of speech, protecting your constitutional rights. And again, at a time when we believe the ACLJ is needed now more than ever.

So in a matching challenge month, we have a group of donors that is ready to match every donation that comes through to double the impact your donation. Donate online today at ACLJ.org. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes 100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Jay Sekio Live.

This is Jordan Sekio. So we took a unique approach here. So when this became more and more public, Congress wanted to start asking questions too, not just of IRS officials, but of these Tea Party group leaders. Now this is a decision you have to make as attorneys. Do you put your clients before Congress and have them testify? Because they're going to get nasty questions from Democrats who say you weren't really being targeted and try to play it all down and you were trying to really run political organizations that shouldn't get this status, things like that. And we said, you know what, the American people need to know how disgusting and gross the IRS is acting here and how Obama's been trying to cover it up with Holder and his IRS commission.

How many IRS commissioners did they go through that time, like three or four? And remember, Holder initially said, there's wrongdoing here and it's criminal wrongdoing. We're going to take action.

Yeah. And then, of course, his action was no action because that's what he always does. Anyways, take a listen though, because, and watch, and again, on Facebook and Periscope, keep sharing this with your friends and family because it's great visually today on the broadcast as we're giving you clips from the documentary. It's available at ACLJfilms.com or on Amazon Prime. You'd look for a search for targeting us, the people's fight against the IRS.

It's free on both ACLJfilms.com or if you've got Amazon Prime targeting us, the people's fight against the IRS. So here we go, taking our clients before Congress and having them testify. I'm not here as a serf or a vassal. I'm not begging my Lords for mercy. I'm a born free American woman, wife, mother, and citizen. And I'm telling my government that you've forgotten your place. It's not your responsibility to look out for my wellbeing. I want to protect and preserve the America that I grew up in, the America that people cross oceans and risk their lives to become a part of.

And I'm terrified it is slipping away. You grow up expecting your government, the United States, your patriotic people. You don't expect this kind of intimidation to a banana republic. You don't expect it. You expect them to be professionals.

And even if they don't like you or agree with you, to treat you with some respect. And there was none of that. When I found out I was given the opportunity to testify, it was a privilege. And I was honored to be able to tell the story. For two and a half years, the IRS has unlawfully delayed and obstructed my application for determination of tax exempt status by using unconstitutional criteria. The types of questions asked by the IRS included asking me to identify the political affiliation of my mentors and that I advise the IRS of my political position on virtually every issue of importance to me. For good measure, I was asked to identify those who might train and that I inform the federal government in detail what I am teaching my students. Considering that the mission of my organization is devoted to mentoring young people, some of whom are minors, can you imagine the reaction of the students' parents were I to turn over the names of their children to the IRS?

And to what end? Is it not conceivable that I would be sued? Would the IRS threaten to audit the parents of those students? Yet my failure to comply with this stunning inquiry would result in the denial of my application or subject me to perjury. I mean, you understand, I mean, these individuals testified before the United States Congress because their rights have been violated here. And fortunately, Congress was taking it all very seriously.

But I have to say something about the clients here and to all of them, you're hearing from a lot of them today. It takes a lot of willpower, a lot of guts to subject yourself to federal litigation, even if you're the plaintiff. And they did it. And they did it because they were concerned about the impact this was going to have on their country. They were concerned about their families. They were concerned about their nation.

They were concerned about their communities. And the American Center for Law and Justice, because of your support for our work, is able to not only produce this great film that, again, called Targeting Us, The People's Fight Against the IRS, available at acljfilms.com or Amazon Prime, either way, but also bring you this broadcast, litigate the case, start a government accountability project. All of this takes place because of our support, the support you give us. So I want to encourage you to go to aclj.org and support the work of the ACLJ in our Matching Challenge campaign. But also, let's put it back on the screen again. You need to watch this movie in full.

It's called Targeting Us. And it's by our ACLJ film team. It's streaming now on acljfilms.com and also on Amazon Prime. So we can get it to it. Anybody in the world that has Amazon Prime can see this movie, see the work that our clients did, the work that we did, the work you're supporting.

So continue to support the work of the ACLJ. You want to take the call? Yeah, Jim's calling from Texas on Line 3. Jim, welcome to Jay Sekio Live. You are on the air. Hey, Jim. Hey, guys.

Thank God for you that you're out there. We all knew this stuff was going on. My question is, what punitive actions can be taken against these departments, Eric Holder, Susan Rice? When are they going to answer for what they do instead of just giving us an oops, I'm sorry? Well, here they didn't give us an oops, I'm sorry. We got an injunction, a declaratory action that also made them change all their policies.

In a companion case that was filed in Ohio that we were involved in as well, our clients received monetary damages. Lois Lerner does no longer works at the Internal Revenue Service. They changed the IRS commissioner, so people were held accountable. But look, I always say this, litigation takes time. If Andy was here, that's what he would say. It takes time to do this.

It takes time to do this. And remember who the DOJ was at the time. They weren't going after their own people.

It was Holder. Now, we have a different DOJ now that has got criminal investigation. We can't do criminal investigation at the ACLJ. But Bill Barr, Attorney Joe Barr, can start them, and he has, against the deep state actors. So the administration, which administration is in charge really comes into play. We can do so much in the civil courts, and you can have great victories there. But for criminal, when you ask for criminal, and we get that all the time, criminal takes it, it's who's in charge of the Department of Justice. And that's an election issue.

And that's who can hold those people accountable in a criminal way. But we didn't just take our clients and say, let's go before Congress. We went to federal court, folks. We went to federal court.

I mean, this was all the way... If you could do like, put together a full strategy, there's like a full campaign legally. Media, congressional testimony, clients across the country taking on one of the most feared federal agencies, figuring out that the FBI was trying to criminally come after our clients, and then saying, you know what? No more negotiating. We're taking you to court IRS. And by the way, the government hates when you take them to court, has so many excuses not to not to be in court with them, but take a listen. I can't imagine a harder entity to come against than the IRS. Let me tell you, the IRS is a formidable foe.

Oftentimes, this is one of the most feared government institutions in the US. They get your taxes. They determine how much you owe. If you owe back taxes, they can seize your wage. I mean, all these things the IRS can do, a lot of power.

They know everything about you, basically. So to sue them voluntarily, took a very brave group of individuals and organizations that decided, okay, let's do this ACLJ. We will, we want to fight back for our rights. We want to fight for our recognition and fight for what we deserve from the IRS.

Let's take them to court. There was a serious systematic problem within the IRS that allowed this issue to percolate all the way to the top. I mean, it was the head of the tax-exempt organization.

You had main treasury. There were concerns that it reached into the White House and, you know, and the President, President Obama dismissed this as inconsequential. But ultimately, the way to handle this was court. You had to be in court to get this resolved. The reason we got into it is because the original reason the Kentucky 912 project was formed for principle, we felt that our rights were being violated, that we had a constitutional right that wasn't allowed to go forward. And that thanks to the ACLJ, we had a voice now that could fight back, shine a light on what was happening. So even if we didn't get what we deserved, that in the future, other organizations may be empowered to stand up and have that voice. You can't just say, we're not going to sue.

You can't say, we're going to just let them trample on our rights. It was time to stand up. And I was proud of the other leaders who did the same.

All right. So look, the reality is, I think that when you're looking at this movie, and I think this is right, this gives you a sense of kind of the overviews of the kind of things where we did an actual case that involved not just litigation, but involved congressional testimony, litigation in federal court, a movie, being able to talk about our TV. I mean, we put these clients, you know, not just on our own media, but right on Fox News. Let me remind you that this is a perfect month, today's perfect too, to donate to the ACLJ because we have a matching challenge.

You may say, Jordan, I've heard you say that before. Let me explain what a matching challenge is. A matching challenge is when we have a group of donors who are regular donors to ACLJ and they say, you know, we want to give you a boost month. So let your donors know, let people who might donate know that we're here and we've already committed to matching every single one of the new donations that come through. So if you donate right now $45 to the ACLJ, just throwing out a number, what is that like? Well, you're charged $45, it's tax deductible donation, but one of those matching donors donates $45.

So what does that mean? Your action is the reason why the ACLJ didn't just receive $45, but $90. So you see how quickly you can double the impact of your donation by donating today during our matching challenge month at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free powerful publication, offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Jay Sekio Live.

This is Jordan Sekio. So we've kind of taken you through. Now you're going to find out a lot more when you when you actually watch the ACLJ film, the documentary targeting us, the people's fight against the IRS. And when I say you can go get the film at ACLJfilms.com for free, it's streaming there. So I mean, you know, it's available if you just do that on your TV now. You could go to, you know, ACLJfilms.com on your own smart TV. Or you can go if you're an Amazon Prime member and a tablet or on your TV as well, or your computer if you want to. And you're an Amazon Prime member, you just search for targeting us, the people's fight against the IRS.

And it's free for Amazon Prime members. But as we're walking you through this, and again, I encourage you, Facebook, Periscope, keep sharing. This is a great broadcast to share because visually, I think it's different than our normal radio broadcast, which again, it's TV quality, but we're showing you a lot of what we do on our real production side when it comes to our film side. So we've taken you through kind of how this began, the opening, getting the letters from the IRS, having the testimony, how we got involved, how the lawsuit began. But now we want to bring you to kind of when we finally, five years into this, got the decision from the court. And this is actually, this is a cool clip because it's one of our clients going through the decision for you.

Take a listen or watch. The government has admitted and has entered into this decree and they've agreed that it's wrong to apply US laws against any individual based upon their name, the positions that they hold, provided their lawful positions, which ours of course were, the issues that we espouse or our associations or even perceived associations. That's the first point. The second point is that the government has agreed that their actions, whatever they take in this process, must be even-handed and never based upon the applicant's name, their political viewpoint or associations or perceived associations. And then the government finally declared or agreed that discrimination on the basis of our viewpoints, that the government in administering the tax code, it's a violation, a fundamental violation of our First Amendment rights, which we knew all along, but the government was denying, to treat us differently in getting tax exempt status or any treatment under the tax code based solely upon our point of view. So to have these now agreed and admitted by the US government will provide precedent, which I hope in the future will at least hold at bay when someone is tempted to do this again. They admitted that they lied, cheat, broke the law, you know, and I guess that's the first time in my understanding that they've ever admitted in a court proceeding that they actually did something wrong. We had things put in place so they wouldn't do it again to somebody else, which is even more important. And the most important, that then becomes a precedent for that next group that comes five, ten years from now. My nine-year-old, when she grows up, she can say, hey, my dad did it.

I can do it too. And she has a voice. And that's what I like about this. And that's why we did this.

It wasn't for me, it was for her. I want to take a couple of minutes here and talk about this because, folks, this is really important. You know, we get so busy and we've had so much activity since these cases that you forget. And that's why it's so important to do these documentaries, because you want the history of what took place. And this again, we couldn't do this without you. So first, thank you to all of you for allowing us to do this, because without your support, we don't get to do this. It's that simple.

That's number one. Number two, look at the result. Now this was congressional testimony, which was extensive, where our clients testified before members of Congress. We then had litigation, which was not done overnight. It was a lot of hearings, a lot of briefs, a lot of motions, appeals, back and forth. We were successful. Then it was settlement discussions.

You just saw in that clip that we just played from the movie, the nature and scope of those settlement discussions, which were really fantastic. And we got an unbelievable result for our clients, which is an unbelievable result for the country. And none of that happens.

None of this takes place without your support of the ACLJ. And what I love about this particular documentary, it shows the full gamut of what we do at the American Center for Law and Justice. It shows everything. It shows litigation. It shows negotiation. It shows congressional hearings.

It shows resolution. It has a documentary that explains the entire case. And when we have a daily radio and television broadcast that comes to you from these studios each and every day, it's because of your support.

So there are a couple of things I'd like you to do first this weekend or tonight. Watch ACLJfilms.com. The movie is called Targeting Us, the people's fight against the IRS.

This started in 2010, 10 years ago, a decade ago. But we got a great result. But you have to have incredible perseverance for all of this.

And you have to have incredible resources. And because of God's graciousness and your support of the ACLJ, we have it. So Targeting Us, the people's fight against the IRS is available at ACLJfilms.com. You could stream it there. It is streaming now.

Or on Amazon Prime, which means the entire world can see it. And we have an entire staff of producers and video experts and sound engineers and music design that puts all this together. And your support of our work at the ACLJ makes it all happen. Now, what I'm going to ask you to do is go see ACLJfilms.com and see what else is on there besides Targeting Us.

But I'd really like you to see the IRS because I think it's important to understand. Then second, second, and this is important, support the work of the ACLJ. I know Jordan's going to want to address this in a moment, but I want to just take a minute here. First of all, I'm only asking you to support the ACLJ if you have the economic means to do that.

We would never do any kind of pressure. And I know for some, it's been very tough. But if you're able to support the work of the ACLJ, as I do and Jordan does, support the work of the ACLJ. We're in a matching challenge campaign. And that allows us to do everything I mentioned, go to court around the globe, handle things at the United Nations, get pastors and Christians out of prison in foreign countries, litigate here and home, helping how many people now, Jordan? How many students? Over 1,500 families have contacted us. I'd say out of those 1,500, 1,300 have already been assigned to attorneys.

Additional couple hundred we just need more information from. And then you're sorting through those who are actually willing to take that next step in action, just like with the IRS matter, because then it's confrontational. Folks, as you're listening or watching these special broadcasts, let me encourage you to support our work financially.

This is a matching challenge month. And I know that you've heard me say that before. If you're a regular listener to the broadcast, you watch the broadcast. But let me just tell people why, who are thinking about making a financial contribution to the ACLJ or into the work that we do, where that goes. Well, obviously, to do this broadcast every day, to get this out, it costs resources. But of course, most of our resources go to fighting the battles.

Of course, using our broadcast is important to that. But it's fighting the battles in courts. It's fighting the battles in Congress. It's fighting the battles in international courts. So all of our international work that we do all over the world, for religious liberty, for freedom of speech, protecting your constitutional rights. And again, at a time when we believe the ACLJ is needed now more than ever. So in a matching challenge month, we have a group of donors that is ready to match every donor in the world, is ready to match every donation that comes through double the impact your donation, donate online today at ACLJ.org. They're most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.