Biden’s IRS Targeting Christians

Today on Sekulow, is the IRS back to its old tricks targeting conservatives and Christian organizations and trying to deny them tax-exempt status? The ACLJ is going to fight back and find out.

Our host, Jordan Sekulow. They want to follow the rules. They want to comply with the IRS.

They want to follow the law. They want to get that checkmark from the IRS that they are a tax-exempt organization in compliance with the IRS. And the first thing you'll notice that's weird, if you look closely, is that there's a legend that is created for this letter, which I've never seen in other IRS letters.

This is kind of interesting. They created a B through M letter indexed, and what you'll first notice is that the letter D stands for Republican. D equals Republican. Now do you think that in your letter, when you keep saying, oh, your group is like a D group, for most people involved in politics, obviously you immediately would say Democrat, unless you go back and see the ledger before it. But what they actually wrote, the IRS's own words, is shocking in light of our victory back in 2017 against the IRS, where the IRS consented never to do this again. And I just want to read for you what's in this specifically. It says that specifically, you educate believers on national issues that are central to their belief in the Bible and the inerrant word of God. I mean, this is used by the IRS. Specifically, you educate Christians on what the Bible says in areas where they can be instrumental, including the areas of life, biblical justice, freedom of speech, defense and borders, and immigration, the U.S. and Israel relations.

So, of course, Israel's involved here. The Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the D party. But if you go back to the, again, go back to the front of the letter, oh, check the legend, the D party means Republican, capital R Republican, and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under Section 51C3. You do not qualify, you engage in prohibited political campaign intervention. And again, this is because you're a substantial, non-exempt, private purposes and for private interests of the D party. It says the D party. I mean, they not only are wrong, and by the way, the IRS has now reversed and said they should never have sent this letter and this denial. So on appeal, this group was approved. But even in its conclusion, the last two words are because of your association with the D party, trying to mislead the American people. M, by the way, in this letter equaled the word of God. So that's how they put that in place.

But let me say this. We went to court in 2017 and obtained a permanent injunction, declaratory judgment, against the Internal Revenue for doing exactly this. And as soon as the Biden administration gets in with their head of tax-exempt organizations, they go right back to what they were doing before against the T party groups and the pro-life groups who they were targeting. And fortunately, our good friends at the Liberty Institute, Kelly Shackelford's group, were able to represent this particular group and won us on appeal.

There's an internal appeal process. Let me tell you what we're doing. Because we went to federal court to obtain this victory, let me tell you what we're doing. We are issuing a Freedom of Information Act request in the next several days, and we're going to find out who came up with this legend.

What other groups have been utilized or have been targeted by this type of approach with a legend like this? Who authorized it? How high up in the chain of the IRS did it actually go? We're going to get that information. Are we going to have to go to court to fight it out over it? Probably. But we're not going to let these administrative bureaucrats get away with this, because what they're doing is reverting to their previous bad behavior, which we have on paragraph 40 of the injunction saying, they will not do.

Was wrong is what they said. That's why we're fighting back. This defies common sense. We have to fight back.

Usually when one of these groups is targeted like this, there are others. We'll be right back on Secular. 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, a 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. Because you're talking about a situation which we had actually won in federal court, and then another one of our allies, Kelly Jackeler's group, had to defend an organization called Christian Engage. And they have literally used this legend, like Jordan said, where D equaled Republican, M equals the word of God. They denied their tax-exempt status. They ended up getting the tax-exempt status on appeal. But what's important here is that it appears, Harry, that the IRS, and I want to ask Harry and Than this, that the IRS has reverted to its previous bad behavior, which was specifically prohibited by our injunction.

Absolutely. So it appears to me that the IRS, pursuant to the Biden-Obama-Harris administration, is up to its old tricks. It is trying to reinstitute failed policies that were essentially A, unconstitutional, and B, in violation of the IRS's own consent decree. Essentially, the IRS is saying that the Bible is a political document. Essentially, the IRS is saying that it can capriciously void the constitutional rights of American citizens. The IRS is saying that it can capriciously void its own consent decree. And so I think at the end of the day, we should conclude that the IRS is up to its old tricks, despite the fact that it reversed itself in this particular case. Harry's right.

We can't take anything for granted. I'm glad Kelly was able to get this reversed, administratively. But the fact is, they did it. And what we're going to try to find out is here why they did it. Yeah, because why is the IRS writing this, for example, which is how they start the sentence.

For example, you educate believers on national issues that are central to their beliefs in the Bible as the inerrant word of God. That should never be written by the IRS. Never?

Ever. I mean, the IRS should not be considering your faith, your religious affiliation, the inerrant word of God. These kind of phrases should not be in a federal government document. This is why we actually, the theory that the government should be separated from church, you know, the idea that Thomas Jefferson had. This is what he was talking about. It's not that the people cannot be involved.

No. It's that the government should be telling you what your beliefs are and if they're okay under the IRS guidelines. But they can continue on.

Specifically, you educate Christians on what the Bible says in areas where they can be instrumental. I can't imagine why the IRS thought they could even write those words. I mean, to me, Than, we've got to get oversight back in play here. I mean, back when it was the Tea Party case that we litigated on behalf of more than 40 groups, they were looking for words like liberty and Tea Party. Jay, this new legend that you and Jordan are talking about, this is the new be on the lookout list. They've just changed the words they're looking for. Now they're looking for words like Republican and Word of God and, Jay, they've added a secret quote, except it's not so secret. They put it right at the top of the letter and we can decipher it.

It's the same playbook, though, Jay. Can we put this up on the screen? But for our radio audience, let me just tell you what it does. So they think they're really cute. So they say D equals Republican instead of Democrat, so they have this sentence. Your founder and President is a motivational public speaker, former D congressional candidate, political consultant, and preacher of the gospel. First of all, the fact that he's the preacher of the gospel, what in the world does that have to do with whether he gets tax exempt status or not? Why would you think, IRS, that this was okay to put in there?

I mean, this is what I don't understand. We have beat you in federal court. You signed a declaratory judgment saying you would never do it again. Now, true, you're trying to get that changed in S1. We'll talk about that in the next segment. But here's the document that's from federal court, and it's all over this document.

It says you can't do what you just did. The IRS admits that it's treatments of the plaintiffs during the tax-exempt determination process. Listen to this. Including screening their applications based on their names or policy positions, subjecting those applications to heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays, and demanding of some of the plaintiffs' information that the TIGDA, that was the inspector general, determined was unnecessary to the agency's determination of tax-exempt status was wrong. IRS admitted it. Here they're talking about you teach biblical values.

You are using the Bible as a moral guide. You're asking people – this is in their letter, folks. Pray for the nation regularly. Vote in every election to impact culture. Engage hearts in some form of political education or activism for the future of the nation. Strive to educate Christians on the importance of prayer. There's something you've got to watch out for. Then voting and engagement in non-partisan matters. The IRS is falling right back into its old bad habits, but they're doing it on purpose.

Harry, that's what bothers me here. I mean, this was signed by the director of exempt organizations. This is the replacement for Lois Lerner. You would think, gee, I don't want to be Lois – do we have the Lois Lerner bite where she takes the Fifth Amendment? I want to get that to remind everybody of what she went through, that she had to go through. And if I was a lawyer, by the way, I'd advise her to do the same thing.

But they return right back to it. Absolutely. So the ghost of Lois Lerner is alive and well at the IRS. And in addition, I would argue that on its face, the letter issued by the IRS denying tax-exempt status in this particular case violates, first, the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. But secondly, it violates the Establishment Clause of the Second Amendment because what do we have here? Excessive government entanglement in religion and defining religion. And the Supreme Court in Lemon v. Kurtzman – I realize that's an establishment case – basically disallowed excessive government entanglement.

Government cannot entangle itself. The question becomes, will the IRS apply these same rules and same principles if the organization happens to be an Islamic group? Are you kidding? And I think the answer – And you know the answer to that. And I think the answer is no. And if they did, by the way, if they did, they'd be equally as wrong.

Absolutely. Now, let me play Lois Lerner's mea culpa just to remind everybody. Take a listen. I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.

And while I would very much like to answer the committee's questions today, I've been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right not to testify or answer questions related to the subject matter of this hearing. Yeah, like the emails between Lois Lerner and the FEC and the Department of Justice saying if we can make one of these cases criminal, we can really scare these groups and not make them effective. So Lois Lerner was – Laurie was right to let her not testify, although she kind of did there. But – and take the Fifth Amendment. But you'd think this new guy would say, you know, I don't – Stephen Martin, I don't really want to go through what Lois Lerner had to go through.

So we're just going to do it the way the court order says we're supposed to, but they won't do it. No, and they are fighting now that the real D party, which is the Democrat party, not the one that's referenced in the letter, I mean just that alone. Enough to make you – The hijinks by the IRS is why it should be. I still feel like it's an agency. It should be abolished. We should restructure what our tax purpose is. We don't need all these bureaucratic offices.

Incapable self-correcting. We don't need all these offices all across the country to handle this. We have – tech can do most of this. The filings have become easier because of tax changes. Anyways, most people are filing very simple forms these days. But I want you to understand that they are trying, Than, to actually put into law the ability for the IRS to continue to do this. They want to legalize the IRS looking at religious background, how that may play politically, political ideology.

It's all included in the S-1 and the voting bill, but also the infrastructure bill is important because that's what funds the IRS with 80 billion new dollars is what the Biden administration wants. But what is critical, Than, is that they want a reversal on that Lerner rule, the Lois Lerner rule, so that the IRS can once again do exactly what they did in this letter, but not have to go on the appeal and reverse themselves, but actually stand by this letter. They sure do, Jordan.

They're coming at it with multiple barrels. You and your dad talked about this consent decree that we got, which by the way disagreed with Lois Lerner. The consent decree specifically found that the IRS had done something wrong, that Lois Lerner had done something wrong, and that was what they signed. But Jordan, the efforts that you're talking about that are happening on Capitol Hill, the legislative ones, ever since 2018, there has been a prohibition on the IRS using dollars to do what Lois Lerner did. The most recent version of it is found in section 122 of the financial services appropriations bill.

Jordan, S-1, HR-1, the bill that passed the House and is being considered in the United States Senate right now, it would repeal that prohibition. So it would specifically say that you are once again allowed under federal law to do the targeting that the IRS agreed not to do in that consent decree. And coupled with that, Jordan, you talked about asking for additional money. They want another $80 billion inside the infrastructure package to give the IRS more power to collect taxes. Here's my suggestion for them, Jordan. Instead of $80 billion, why don't you take the personnel and the resources that you are using to again target to conservatives and use that to increase your collection power?

How about try that? Folks, again, this is very real and what we're going to do with the ACLJ, again, we're glad that this one group didn't have to go to court. They were able to handle it internally with the IRS. But if the IRS has got a legend and D means Republican and M means word of God, that should never again be in the IRS legend, word of God.

But who else got letters like this? Is it happening yet again? And if this group was willing to fight back, many people get this stuff from the IRS. We've learned during representing the Tea Party, they say, I don't want anything to do with a lawsuit against the IRS. We're challenging the IRS.

We'll be right back. 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, Planned 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, 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.

Welcome back to Secio. I think what is important here, too, I want to point out is that we are going to take action now on this because we believe that when you see this from the IRS, what you first have to do, of course, is handle the wrong, the party that was wrong. The Liberty Institute did a great job on that. They did, and they didn't have to go to court. They were able to handle it administratively. But then you have to say, okay, how many other people are getting letters like this? Is this a form for the IRS, a form letter, where they just kind of plug in the facts?

So is this code. The fact is, if they created it just for this group, that is dangerous because that means somebody is in tax exempt who is looking at these groups and is saying, you have free reign to come up with your own legends? This IRS government agency is extremely bureaucratic, but it's supposed to be because you're supposed to know the rules. Should they be creating their own legend outside of official IRS legends for what terminology?

I mean, the IRS is complicated, so legends are important. I worked my first job out of law school a very long time ago, 41 years ago, was in Chief Counsel's Office of the Internal Revenue Service. I was a trial lawyer for IRS. The IRS was our client, Chief Counsel's Office. Department of the Treasury, IRS was the client. We had a book that was about three volumes thick. It was called an IRM, Internal Revenue Manual. Nothing that you wrote.

Unless it was in that manual, it wasn't going out. So the question here is, who authorized this? This is what I want to make sure our Freedom of Information Act requests. Who authorized this creation of a legend? How did this legend get approved, including the M for the word of God, D for Republicans, G, promise keepers? Who authorized putting in words like your founder and President as a motivational speaker, former D congressional candidate, which really means R, political consultant and preacher of the gospel? Who authorized all this to go in?

Your vice President as motivational speaker, former President of F, F is the Texas Eagle Forum, intercessor. They put intercessor in the IRS letter. Our founding fathers will be rolling over in their grave thinking that a government agency is doing this. But the irony of this, the thing that's so hard to understand is they are specifically told in the case captioned, lynch pins of liberty at all versus the United States of America, a case that we litigated for three and a half years at the IRS and won, that they can't do that. But they do, they did it. We're going to find out to what detail they did it. But the fact is they immediately reverted to their, as I said, their prior bad habits, Harry.

They went right back to it. Absolutely. So what we have here is a group of largely elite individuals who believe they hold the moral high ground. And so they are morally superior to consent degrees. They are morally superior to the constitution. They are morally superior to the common folk. And so they really don't care what the Supreme Court is saying. They don't care what courts have said. And they don't even care about agreements that they have signed. They have been licensed, in my opinion, by the new administration, by the Biden administration to enact policies which shrink the democratic and constitutional rights of American citizens.

And all American citizens should be up in arms and they should be engaged to defeat this power grab by the IRS and the Biden administration. I mean, I just am shocked because they use the word, and this is like, did they copy and paste it from their application or some of the IRS is really using the word intercessor. I would love to depose them and say, do you know what, what is the definition of that? Why is that a disqualifying? Why is that a disqualifying? And then you have to go back to K what is K Colin County victory after the fact is just because of these people's associations previously with conservative politics or faith groups, they're getting denied. I don't like the government using the word intercessor and official government documents. I don't like them using the word of God.

I mean, think about this for a moment. This isn't an IRS document. You know, I know that the Republicans are not in the majority fan in the Congress, so you're not going to get hearings on this.

But I got to tell you something and we're going to, in the second half hour, we're going to talk about how this relates to SR1 and HR1 because they're trying to get it done legislatively. But this really, our members, the ranking members should be outraged on this stuff. That's why this FOIA is important.

Absolutely, Jay. And the only reason this organization got the tax exempt status along with the good work of the Liberty Institute is they got caught. Jay, the IRS got caught. I mean, we caught them the last time around. That's the only reason that they came around and they've been caught again.

Here's my concern, though, Jay. We know this violated the consent decree. We know that it violated federal law. We're going to find out who did it. We're going to find out if they know that they knowingly violated the law.

I suspect the answer to that is yes. But here's my big concern, Jay. We know from the last time around that the fact pattern went something like this. First there was one group that had a concern and then all of a sudden there were five and then all of a sudden we represented 40 groups and there were hundreds that had received letters. Jay, I'm concerned that this is the tip of the iceberg. If this letter is being used one time, how many groups, how many conservatives are again being targeted by the IRS? I remember how we found out last time. You know what we did? We said call us at 1-800-684-3110. That's our toll-free number into our radio broadcast. Are you getting harassed by the IRS because of your activities like this? Are there groups you're trying to form? And I remember what happened.

It went from one to 40 and many more than that, but 40 that were willing to fight it out. We'll do the same thing. 1-800-684-3110 if you want to talk to us about what you think the IRS is up to here. And especially if you've been targeted by this, so we'll take your calls or comments.

If you feel like you can retire, you can also go to ACLJ.org forward slash help. So if you're not in a place to do right now, you can go on the website and just note this. Because our suspicion is that this letter, again the creation of this legend and the words that were used and the targeting of the Christian faith and the targeting of intercessor and inherent word of God and the list goes on. And their support for Israel, by the way. That's also a disqualifier that they support. And they just talk about the disqualifiers that they talk about US and Israel relations, which is not a disqualifier at all for any organization.

But let us know at ACLJ.org forward slash help because it's the way we will know. We're also fighting the FOIA. But how many other people are getting information like this from the IRS that's similar, that's using, I mean it's clear deception to say that the D equals Republican. I don't even know why they thought that. They thought it was being cute. Yeah, exactly.

And when you play cute, you're probably doing something that's wrong. And when you're doing something that's wrong as an IRS official, it may very well violate the law. Specifically, this letter does. And they're trying to rectify it. They didn't force this group to go to court.

That's good. But we cannot allow the culture of the IRS to revert back to we can send a letter like this. I mean this is worse than just a denial and appeal that they went through and put all this out. It's almost shocking that you actually get this from a federal government agency. I mean that's to me what is actually most shocking is that there's a moron inside the IRS who wrote this and put this together. This is how you, remember, Lois Lerner has no career. These people lost their jobs. I hope we find some more of that language. Had to take the fifth.

Looking for some of the questions. I mean since she did nothing wrong but then takes the fifth, made the statement, got herself in so much trouble. And the whole division lost their jobs. Yep. People couldn't even keep a commissioner in. It takes no time for them to revert to bad habits. Oh yeah because they're wrong. That's why you've got to be vigilant. Because this is who is drawn in to these positions. And they think that they are currying favor with the incumbent partisan political party that runs the government. But that's why you've got to fight back immediately.

Exactly. We're doing that now. We are at NACLJ.org. Support our work matching challenge.

We'll be right back second half hour. 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 ten dollar gift becomes twenty dollars.

A fifty dollar gift becomes one hundred. 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. Live from Washington D.C. Sekulow Live. And now your host Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. We were asking people has this happened to you specifically or to an organization that you want to start. That you've tried to follow the rules, follow the application process with the IRS.

And did you get back anything bizarre talking about your political beliefs, Israel, foreign policy, your religious beliefs, prayer. Intercession. Yes it was a disqualifier. One of the disqualifiers for this group is that one of the staff, potential staff of this organization described themselves as someone who was an intercessor. Which either the IRS person knew what that was or tried to exclude people who pray for others. That's it. They pray for others or they don't know what the word means. And they think it's more serious or somehow fundamentalist. Yes exactly.

But this is again I want to play for people this flashback because you have to remember this was real. Lois Lerner. Lois Lerner, Darrell Issa, these congressional hearings, the back and forth.

Take a listen. In October 2010 you told a Duke University group and everyone is up in arms because they don't like it. The Federal Election Commission can't do anything about it. They want the IRS to fix the problem. Wanted to fix the problem caused by Citizen United.

What exactly does that mean? My counsel has advised me that I have not waived my constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment and on his advice I will decline to answer any question on the subject matter of this hearing. Ms. Lerner, in February of 2014 President Obama stated that there was not a smidgen of corruption in the IRS targeting. Ms. Lerner, do you believe that there is not a smidgen of corruption in the IRS targeting of conservatives? On the advice of my counsel I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question. So you're not going to tell us who wanted to fix the problem caused by Citizen United? On the advice of my counsel I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question.

Can I say something here? She had the right to exercise her Fifth Amendment privilege. If I was a lawyer I would have said the same thing. Having said that, do you think maybe the Internal Revenue Service, my old employer, would have thought, maybe. You know we've been through this once with Lois Lerner and ended up in federal court and ended up with a consent order filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. And by the way, in Ohio, our companion case, they had to pay about three or four million dollars in damages. You think maybe we wouldn't do this again?

This may be not a good idea to start saying you're a Christian group, you're a preacher of the gospel, you're an intercessor, you're a homeschool mom. The fact like what you said Jordan, that's coming off the pen or the computer of an IRS exempt organization agent is really troubling. Oh it is the most troubling that they have not learned that this is career ending for them. I think here again this case was resolved without having to go to court. But we also know that all we really have in the documents that have been released is the IRS, the head of tax exempt, the new person who has filled Lois Lerner's shoes. The question would be how high up this goes in the IRS. Was it the tax exempt director?

Was it higher up? Was it the commissioner of the IRS? And of course this is all in the background that they want to change the law. The Biden administration wants to change the law to effectively allow the IRS to look into groups political beliefs, religious beliefs and ideology. They actually want to protect the IRS, their agents and directors, the tax exempt division so that they can look at your ideology and what you believe.

And then judge whether or not you're worthy of IRS approval. We'll be coming right back on Sekulow. Take your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110. We also have our matching challenge right now.

Yeah and by the way good calls coming in. 800-684-3110. Your experience with the IRS on this or your experience generally or your outrage.

We'll talk about all that 800-684-3110. We've authorized a Freedom of Information Act case to begin on this. Your support of the ACLJ keeps this broadcast on the air, allows us to do FOIA cases, allows us to get the consent decree against the IRS. 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. Welcome back to Sekulow. We're going to go right to the phones.

1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Barry in California online too. Hey, Barry, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hi, Barry.

Thank you for taking my call. I've been audited 10 years by the IRS, seven consecutive years for my donations to Christian charities, even though each audit has concluded in that I have not underpaid my taxes by even one cent. Let me ask you a question, Barry, because I've heard this is, I mean, I know this has happened before to people. So was it one particular group you were donating to that you think was kind of the target of this audit? No. It was just you had general contributions to Christian organizations?

Correct. And in your dealing with the IRS, I'm not meaning to cross-examine you here, in your dealing with the IRS, when you raised this, did they say the basis of our audit was because of these donations? Yes, they did. And I even asked them why are they continuing to audit me for the same thing that they have found that I had not underpaid for. And what was their answer to that? They just, I don't recall. It was in a room with an auditor.

Yeah. And it just, it was just kind of a- Were you represented by counsel? No, just by CPAs, and eventually I just started representing myself. Yeah, I mean, are you having one currently going on, or has it stopped? No, I just finished the tenth one.

It took about 18, 20 months to finish. And did it only focus, I mean, I sound like a cross-examine, but did it only focus on the charitable contributions? Were there other issues on your return that you were looking at? Well, what I've noticed is they note the Christian charity donations, but then they list other items.

Yeah. Once they exhaust, try and find any discrepancies in my donations. So they're using it- Yeah, it sounds like they're using the donations as the trigger to commence the audit. So here's what, I can't give you general legal advice, obviously, over the phone, but you really should get a lawyer.

And here's why, Barry. At that point, and especially when you've had note what's considered, when you say you don't even know one more dime, it's considered a no change. You get a no change letter.

That point is harassment. And there is an inspector general's office, TIGDA, inside the Internal Revenue Service, Treasury. And there's also an advocate office inside the IRS.

And I would get your CPA or lawyer to contact them. Now, here's the problem, Jordan, and this is the problem with all of this. What is it that's keying off these examinations? What is it about the, in Barry's case, Barry's tax returns, that resulted in this idea that we can now look at him? And then when you see the legend in this particular one that Liberty handled, Liberty Institute handled, and we know in our case that we filed in federal court, we do know it's be on the lookout, BOLO. Right. Which they want to put back into Senate bills now.

That's right. I mean, Thay, this is what is key, is that this, and what Barry's talking about, this harassment of individuals, but also organizations, they want to legalize for the IRS. They want to give them that legal cover protection and the green light to go ahead and look into people who apply for exhibit status, look into their ideology, look into their faith, look into their politics, look into their personal connections. Sure sounds like they're doing the same thing again, Jordan. Sounds like they've got another keyword list, another BOLO list, whatever you want to call it. And just so people remember, here's what happened after the 2010 elections, the IRS came up with that be on the lookout list that Jay is talking about.

Basically keywords that if they were in your application, you know, words like Liberty or Tea Party, your application was flagged. It sounds to me like, Jordan, they may have another list active. But look, after our case, after we represented more than 40 clients, a couple of things happened. Number one, the consent decree that you have talked about was signed by the IRS. They told a court they would never do this again.

I suspect they're doing it again. Number two, Jordan, the Congress, the House and the Senate in 2018 passed a provision inside the Financial Services Appropriations Act that says the IRS cannot spend any money doing this kind of targeting, essentially outlawing it in federal law. Jordan, that continued to pass every single year. The most recent version was Section 122 of the 2021 Financial Services Appropriation Act. That is federal law as it stands right now. However, the bill that passed out of the House of Representatives, H.R. 1, it's S.1 in the United States Senate, contains a provision. It's kind of confusing to read, but essentially it's Section 4501 of H.R. 1 and it says Section 122 of that act is repealed. Jordan cut through all the legalese. What does that say? It says that the IRS would be federally permitted to again have a lowest learner act, to again have a be on the lookout list, to again have a keyword list.

You know what it looks like, Jordan? It looks like they're already implementing it, even ahead of that bill passing. Fan, I was about to say exactly, they're not waiting for Congress. I mean, unlike the way laws are supposed to be put in place, they're not waiting for Congress. Harry, they're doing it now.

Absolutely, and I think Fan's intuition is absolutely correct. The IRS has now put together a catalog of keywords with respect to flagging applications, notwithstanding a 2018 law which prevents them from targeting conservative organizations. And a consent order on top of that.

And a consent order. And so at the end of the day, I think it comes back to this notion of moral superiority. And if you look, for instance, at critical race theory, critical race theory is grounded in the notion that the proponents of this idea are morally superior to the rest of us. And so what has that led to? It has led to the classifications of certain organizations and certain behaviors as a form of a hate crime. Essentially what the IRS is doing here, effectively, whether they are doing it intentionally or not, is that they're classifying prayer and membership in a Christian organization as some type of hate crime.

Much like some person to the American Republic. And it's unconstitutional. It violates the law. It violates their own consent decree. But if you're morally superior, you keep on doing it. Yeah, I think what we see here from the IRS is very troubling.

And I think that, again, playing around with these words, trying to be confusing intentionally. Let's go to the phones. Amy in Tennessee on Line 1. Hey, Amy, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air.

Well, thank you so much for taking my call. I think I have maybe a two or three part question. Bear with me to get an understanding effectively how the IRS is defined. In other words, how are they held accountable if they are indeed held accountable? And do they stand outside of government oversight? Well, they are held accountable both internally and externally. Internally, they have a TIG to office, which is the inspector general. And the inspector general in our case said that the IRS violated its own rules and regulations and violated law. Then the external accountability is when groups like ours, this particular audit that was handled for this Christians Engaged group was handled by colleagues of ours at Liberty Institute, Kelly Shackelford's group.

They did a great job on getting this reversed. We look at it now on a more global scale and say, okay, we were the lawyers that handled the consent decree and got the monetary judgment. By the way, Amy, there was also a multimillion dollar judgment that came in place here. And then we're working on right now a letter that's going to go to the IRS, probably the Treasury, probably the chief counsel's office that says, hey, you've got this legend on this letter, you're talking about word of God, you're talking about promise keepers, you're talking about intercessors, you're talking about prayer coordinators, homeschool moms. Where is this coming from? Who authorized this?

Where is this going? How many of these letters were sent out to other groups? We want to know every group that received a letter like this. And how was the determination made to start using this legend, which as Jordan said, is probably the most troubling aspect of this when you've got IRS agents typing out on their computers, prayer intercessors, prayer groups. D is, you know, D Congressman, which was really our Republican Congressman, we want to know all the answers to that. So that's how you ultimately hold them accountable.

But we had to go to federal court in two locations, one in Washington, C.C., the other in Ohio, got damages out of the Ohio case in an injunction or a consent order in the case in D.C. But this is, you know, they fell right back into it as soon as the new administration was in power. It's amazing, really. Yeah. Again, to me, this is... Jordan's mic's out again, so we're having a problem with that. We're going to get that fixed.

But what Jordan was saying is the fact that they're writing it out, the fact that they're having, you know, the thought process going in to get this thing fixed, we have to now go out specifically and deal with it. In other words, we have to now go to the IRS and say, we know you did this. Why did you do it? How did you do it? Who did you do it to?

Who authorized it being done? Do we have it fixed now? Still not fixed. Okay, we're going to get it fixed during the break.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to the phones. Timothy in Tennessee online too. Hey Timothy, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hey guys, thanks.

And thank you so much for all you guys are doing for us. It's noted every day. Hey, so something I wanted to ask, I mean, I thought that this stuff was just unique to my situation. I've been audited for years in a row now. Ever since I marked myself as a Republican and as donating to Christian organizations and this year it was doubled down and now I'm getting harassing calls and everything else constantly.

Well, let me ask you a question, Tim. Are you actually in audits? I mean, is the Internal Revenue Service actually, you know, asking you to meet with agents for audits?

I guess they do it by Zoom now, but however they do it, but is that what they're doing? Yeah, I've got stacks of letters here trying the scheduling. Basically, they're saying they're redoing all my past three years of tax returns. Yeah, that's their statute of limitations. Did they say in that letter what it is that they are interested in looking at or is it just general? Well, no, there was a specific list of things that they were pulling up about my donations and then they started going into other things that they started pulling up. But let me ask you about the donations issue. I'm focusing on that because this is why we do this radio broadcast.

This is exactly what happened in the Tea Party cases. We started getting these calls. Are they asking, like about the donations, are they asking you specifics? Yes, they were asking three very specific things on that and they actually reversed them out saying that these would not be allowed. So they disqualified your charitable contributions? Yes.

And the reason why was what? They said these organizations did not meet their standards or something? There was a specific code, I have to grab the paperwork again, but there was a specific... Yeah, I'd like to see this. This is important because this is the second call now in five minutes of this. And this, unfortunately, what happens is it seems to be that the charitable contributions, Harry, are triggering the IRS audit and then, of course, can always go into other things, which is what they do. Well, I think you're right.

I think your intuition is spot on. And I also think one of the fundamental problems at issue in these types of cases is that we have granted far too much bureaucratic power to individuals. And they exercise that power in an arbitrary and capricious manner and there is insufficient oversight. And so here you have the Biden administration demanding an additional $80 billion to be given to the IRS.

I think, at a minimum, what we need to do before we give them any more money is to reeducate the bureaucrats, but also come up with a code or a standard by which these individuals who engage in misbehavior can indeed be punished. So I think that would be a welcome move. Yeah, we're going to get Timothy's information.

We're going to follow up with him as well. It's interesting, though, that Huey was donating to was what triggered it. Right. And those groups, they're saying that those groups don't meet their standards. And again, most of these organizations that people would be donating to have gotten all of their, you know, they comply with the IRS, but they're picking and choosing. It looks like, again, they're picking and choosing. So it's all going to tax exempt.

Yeah. But that is their bread and butter. That's their division that they love. And I want to reiterate again, they want to make this legal. They want to make it legal to target you because of your political ideology. They want to make it legal, Jordan, which also tells you that they know it's currently illegal.

I mean, if you have to change it to make it legal, they know it's illegal and yet they're doing it anyway. I think it's fair to say, based on, you know, circumstantial evidence at this point, but certainly the case that we're talking about today, that the IRS is once again, Jordan, targeting Americans based on their conservative viewpoint, based on their religious views. And, you know, I just want to quickly go back to something that Harry said. He was very kind about it. He said that maybe it was inadvertent. Jordan, they've lost the benefit of the doubt in my mind on this because they did it so recently. They got caught. That's the only reason they acknowledged that they were doing something wrong. And now they are at it again. I just do not believe it's inadvertent. This is intentional. Take one more call.

Yeah, absolutely. Richard in California, online one. Hey, Richard, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hey, guys.

God's blessings to you and thanks for taking my call. I just want to say that this gets awfully frustrating and I'm sure it's frustrating for you because you guys have already gone through this with the Obama administration. The thing is, is I just don't think there's enough punishment. You never hear about any of these people going to jail.

They usually get a raise and move to a different apartment. That didn't happen here. Go ahead and finish, Richard. I'm going to tell you what happened to the IRS.

Go ahead. Well, there's just a long list of people that, in my opinion, should be in jail. You put somebody in jail, you got to bring a criminal case.

So here's what Lois Lerner. She exercised her constitutional privilege under the Fifth Amendment to not incriminate herself. If I was a lawyer, I would have had her do exactly the same thing. By the way, it's not an admission of guilt. It's just you don't have to self-incriminate yourself.

People that are innocent can take the Fifth Amendment. However, the IRS did have to sign a consent decree of what they did was wrong. They had to pay damages for what they did that was wrong. And the IRS internalized and redid all of their policies. So they were held accountable. Here's where you're right, though. A new administration comes in and it literally takes nanoseconds for them to fall right back into the old habits. That's the thing that I think, Richard, what you're saying here is so real.

Yeah, absolutely. And this is, again, it's agents inside this very specific division. That's where they make it easier for us. It's always coming out of the tax-exempt division. And whether it's the organization, whether it's an individual that feels like they're being audited because of their tax-exempt donations that they're putting out on their forms, their returns, it's always this office. Which is why we have said that this entire agency in itself, and it's used politically, the law shouldn't be going back and forth on whether they can politically target someone or not. That should never be okay in America.

You shouldn't be saying Republican, Democrats, Promise Keepers, Word of God, Intercessor, Prayer, Preacher of the Gospel. What is that doing in an internal revenue service letter from the tax-exempt division signed by the director of the tax-exempt division? I mean, this is signed by the director, exempt organizations, rulings, and agreements. I mean, this is, the danger here is, look, we've just been on the air on this. We've done two programs on this. We've already started getting calls that this is happening elsewhere. We're going to do a Freedom of Information Act request.

And you know what we're going to find out, Harry? It is happening elsewhere. I think that's precisely- Rest assured, it's happening elsewhere. I think that's precisely correct, but I also would go back to an earlier point, and that is the IRS has engaged in an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the Constitution. That's the fundamental problem, but they believe that they are entitled to get away with it. Why?

Because they believe their interpretation of the Constitution is superior to the United States Supreme Court. But it's not. And because of that, and because of you, we can fight back. We can fight back by bringing it to you live every five days a week, 52 weeks a year.

We can bring it back by going to court and getting consent decrees. We can go back, and the guy said it must be, the caller, Tim, said it must be frustrating you. It's not frustrating us. It's what we do. We're prepared for battle. That's what we do at the ACLJ.

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