'True the Vote' non-profit group heavily targeted, audited, visited by FBI as part of the IRS intimidation scandal

Monday, June 10, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: True the Vote, IRS scandal, Tea Party

(NaturalNews) By now, most Americans know that the scheming Obama Administration used the Internal Revenue Service as a weapon to target political groups opposed to the president and his "hope and change" agenda. But as time goes on, and as more details emerge, it has become apparent that the IRS has been completely transformed from the nonpartisan tax-collection agency it was originally intended to be and more like a Chicago-style criminal organization seeking to snuff out the regime's resistance. Ditto for the FBI.

Enter True the Vote and King Street Patriots - two non-profit public policy organizations formed by a Texas couple who were ultimately targeted by the IRS, the FBI and other government agencies, compliments of a vindictive Obama Administration.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, "Catherine Engelbrecht - a nice woman, a citizen, an American" - owns a small manufacturing firm in Richmond, Texas. Concerned with the political direction of the country, she formed the two conservative-leaning groups to advocate for change. When she went to register them for tax-exempt status in 2010, all government hell broke loose.

A criminal enterprise, pure and simple

Per the Journal:

In December 2010 the FBI came to ask about a person who'd attended a King Street Patriots function. In January 2011 the FBI had more questions. The same month the IRS audited her business tax returns. In May 2011 the FBI called again for a general inquiry about King Street Patriots. In June 2011 Engelbrecht's personal tax returns were audited and the FBI called again. In October 2011 a round of questions on True the Vote. In November 2011 another call from the FBI. The next month, more questions from the FBI. In February 2012 a third round of IRS questions on True the Vote. In February 2012 a first round of questions on King Street Patriots. The same month the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms did an unscheduled audit of her business. (It had a license to make firearms but didn't make them.) In July 2012 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration did an unscheduled audit. In November 2012 more IRS questions on True the Vote. In March 2013, more questions. In April 2013 a second ATF audit.

Based on this level of response, you'd think the Engelbrecht was trying to set up front groups for Mexican drug cartels or something. Instead she was just trying - in the case of True the Vote - to register people to vote and get the names of dead people removed from voter registration rolls.

Remember, the root of the initial IRS scandal story was that the agency specifically targeted conservative, Tea Party groups in the months prior to the 2012 presidential election - which, in and of itself, taints Obama's reelection and makes one question whether the outcome would have been different had the conservative groups targeted for retribution been given their rightful status and allowed to flourish.

Remember, too, that the IRS leaked confidential names of donors to these conservative groups to liberal organizations - never the other way around.

Strip the IRS of power by simplifying the tax code - now

"This was a political operation. If it had not been, then the statistics tell us left-wing groups would have been harassed and abused, and seen their applications leaked to the press. There would be a left-wing equivalent to Catherine Engelbrecht," the Journal reported.

"And all of this apparently took place in the years leading up to the 2012 election. Meaning that before that election, groups that were anti-Obamacare, or pro-life, or pro-Second Amendment or constitutionalist, or had words like 'tea party' or 'patriot' in their name - groups that is that would support Republicans, not Democrats - were suppressed, thwarted, kept from raising money and therefore kept from fully operating."

Of all the other scandals swirling around the Obama White House - Fast and Furious, Benghazi, Justice Department targeting of reporters - the one involving the IRS is the worst because the agency literally has the power of life and death, economically and otherwise, over every living American.

Any lawmaker in Congress who still opposes stripping the IRS of its power by dramatically simplifying the tax code (http://www.foxnews.com) (which has been manipulated for decades to win political favor among key voting blocs and constituencies) is an enemy of liberty, plain and simple, and should be opposed at the next election.

Sources for this article include:

http://online.wsj.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.foxnews.com