Federal District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr., has ordered the Internal
Revenue Service to produce documents requested by Landmark Legal
Foundation in its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit
to uncover the origins of referrals for audits of non-profit groups
targeted for audits during the Clinton administration.
“This is a very significant victory,” explained Landmark’s President
Mark R. Levin. “For two years we have sought the names of individuals or
groups that may have urged the IRS to audit nonprofit, tax-exempt
organizations. We want to determine whether the costly and
time-consuming audits of scores of conservative and libertarian groups
have been politically motivated.”
The list of groups also includes the Western Journalism Center,
parent company of WorldNetDaily, which first broke the story of the
pattern of audits of organizations considered adversarial to the Clinton
administration and its policies.
Western Journalism Center has identified more than two dozen groups
that have been audited after criticizing the Clinton administration. In
addition, many for-profit businesses and individuals — including
high-profile Clinton “enemies” such as Paula Jones, former White House
Travel Office director Billy Dale and actress Elizabeth Ward Gracen —
have also been audit targets, raising suspicions of political abuse of
the IRS.
Landmark’s latest win follows a summary judgment in October by Judge
Kennedy that ordered the IRS to waive processing fees to Landmark for
the cost of the search for documents responsive to the Foundation’s FOIA
request. Fee waivers are normally granted as a matter of course to
501(c) (3) non-profit organizations such as Landmark.
“The IRS has thrown up every imaginable obstacle, every possible
objection to block our request,” Levin said. “So far, they’ve been
unsuccessful and they have to produce the documents we’ve sought. When
we receive them, we will review every word and every page to determine
whether the IRS has been exploited by outside groups or individuals.
“The next challenge will come when we seek the information the IRS
redacts from the documents they give us,” commented Levin. “We’re going
to continue to fight as hard as we can to win this, one way or another.”
Landmark Legal Foundation is a public-interest law firm with offices
in Kansas City, MO, and Herndon, VA.
