‘Crackdown’: Trump team targets leftist orgs over their tax-exempt status

By Bob Unruh

Career criminal Al “Scarface” Capone ran a Prohibition-era syndicate of outlaws in Chicago.

He ended up being caught over his tax violations and was sent to prison for 11 years.

Now a report confirms that the Trump administration has begun investigating potential tax violations by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and George Soros’ leftist Open Society Foundations, which funds multiple far-left and anti-American agendas.

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The SPLC is the group that essentially runs a hate campaign against conservative and Christian organizations by labeling them “hate” groups alongside perpetrators like the KKK. CAIR is an Islam-promoting organization that has been designated as a terror group by several countries.

Now a report in the New York Post explains that its sources have said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the IRS could revoke the tax-free status of the left-wing organizations.

They operate now under the beneficent provisions on the tax rules for nonprofits in America.

“It is part of a Trump-backed crackdown on ‘bogus’ charities, and Treasury officials are drawing up a sweeping audit of outfits deemed to be using and abusing Uncle Sam’s tax code, the three people briefed on the Treasury Department’s internal policy deliberations said,” according to the report.

Of course such loss of a tax-exempt status could end up bringing about back payments, civil penalties and more.

The work follows an executive order from President Donald Trump last year that put a focus on nonprofits being run for a “substantial illegal purpose.”

Other organizations being reviewed, the report said, include the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, the anti-Amazon Athena Coalition, left-leaning watchdog MediaJustice, and the Strategic Organizing Center alongside its parent union, the SEIU.

The Post said one unidentified source confirmed, “There’s a lot of internal pressure to get it done, but some people are still moving too slowly at the IRS. That is expected to change very soon.”

Reactionary lawsuits already are in the works, with a leftist group, Protect Democracy, going to court to claim the Trump administration is weaponizing the tax code.

The case claims Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the White House are using the law for a “witch hunt” that violates the First Amendment.

The Post reported Treasury officials didn’t respond with comment, but, “Bessent confirmed last October on the ‘Charlie Kirk Show’ that work on compiling the hit list had begun.”

There are a wide range of possible results, but the Post analyzed the cases and said applying a standard 21% federal corporate tax rate would impose a burden of about $165 million on the three groups for 2024.

The report said Open Society puts billions of dollars into non-governmental organizations pushing diversity agendas, climate lawsuits and illegal aliens, agendas such as Black Lives Matter and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

The SPLC recently was indicted for allegedly taking money from donors to fight white supremacy-type organizations, and then funding those very groups.

CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial. CAIR adamantly denies any ties to illicit foreign funding or terror organizations.

 

 

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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