Daily Signal: IRS Under Fire for Targeting Breitbart News

by Breitbart News .

Editors Note: This article was the lead on The Daily Signal, the news and information site of the Heritage Foundation. We reprint here.

 

The Internal Revenue Service, already under investigation for illegally targeting conservative and tea party groups, recently audited the conservative Breitbart News Network in a move that the company says was politically motivated.

The IRS sought the company’s financial records from 2012, Fox News reported earlier today. Brietbart.com relaunched that year with a more robust reporting team. Over the past two years, it has produced hard-hitting stories exposing scandals in the Obama administration.

The news drew a swift reaction from Breitbart’s leaders and prompted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to fire off a letter to the IRS demanding answers about the audit.

“For the IRS to behave like a partisan political organization, targeting media organizations whose views differ from the president’s, would represent a gross abuse of power,” Cruz said. “It would undermine the statutory mission and integrity of the IRS. And it would likely subject IRS employees to criminal prosecution.”

Cruz said the IRS’ recent track record made the action against Breitbart “highly questionable.”

For more than a year, the agency has faced scrutiny for its illegal targeting of conservative and tea party groups seeking nonprofit status. The IRS also recently agreed to pay a $50,000 fine for wrongfully leaking the National Organization for Marriage’s confidential tax information.

Breitbart’s leaders said they wouldn’t cower under the threat of an IRS audit.