{"id":1760519,"date":"2022-12-03T06:06:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T11:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1760519"},"modified":"2022-12-03T07:49:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T12:49:14","slug":"dem-sen-sheldon-whitehouse-tried-to-pressure-government-agencies-into-targeting-conservative-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-sen-sheldon-whitehouse-tried-to-pressure-government-agencies-into-targeting-conservative-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Tried to Pressure Government Agencies Into Targeting Conservative Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdem-sen-sheldon-whitehouse-tried-to-pressure-government-agencies-into-targeting-conservative-groups%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1760519&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) tried to use federal agencies like the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service to act against groups propagating conservative programs, according to documents (<a href=\"http:\/\/thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com\/2022\/11_30_3.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) obtained by the watchdog American Accountability Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter sent to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig on Jan. 19, 2021, Whitehouse asked for revoking the tax-exempt status of conservative organization <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-turning-point-usa\">Turning Point USA<\/a> as the entity held an event at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago club without observing social distancing and masking rules, according to The Daily Signal which received the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2022\/11\/30\/exclusive-documents-reveal-senate-democrat-pressured-irs-doj-to-target-conservative-groups\">documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTax-exempt status provides a substantial benefit to charitable organizations and reflects the federal government\u2019s endorsement of an organization\u2019s activities,\u201d Whitehouse wrote to the IRS chief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOrganizations that knowingly put in danger minors entrusted to their care should not enjoy the benefits of tax-exempt status. Accordingly, I urge the IRS to review whether it should revoke Turning Point USA\u2019s tax-exempt status.\u201d The entity\u2019s stated mission is to develop young Americans into conservative leaders.<\/p>\n<p>In a response to Whitehouse on Mar. 28, 2021, Rettig said that he wouldn\u2019t reveal whether the IRS was investigating or acting against Turning Point USA, citing the protection of privacy of tax returns.<\/p>\n<p>In another letter dated May 5, 2022, the Rhode Island Democrat complained to Rettig, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen about nonprofits engaging in political activity and reporting it to the Federal Election Commission, but denying such activity with the IRS.<\/p>\n<p>He cited a 2012 report by left-leaning ProPublica and a 2022 report by the liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to back up his claim.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to The Daily Signal, Tom Jones, president and founder of the American Accountability Foundation, said that Whitehouse is taking a \u201cspaghetti to the wall approach\u201d by going after conservative groups and seeing what sticks. \u201cIt\u2019s simply wrong, an abuse of his position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times has reached out to Sen. Whitehouse.<\/p>\n<h2>Targeting Other Organizations<\/h2>\n<p>Whitehouse had recently revealed that he intends to target the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) for allegedly violating IRS regulations. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenWhitehouse\/status\/1597364183062171648\">tweet<\/a>\u00a0on Nov. 29, he called the CPI a \u201cdark money hub for MAGA Republicans\u201d and that it acted as a \u201ccushy landing pad\u201d for Trump\u2019s associates.<\/p>\n<p>The CPI is also registered as a tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) charitable entity due to which it \u201cabsolutely can\u2019t engage\u201d in any kind of political campaign intervention, he insisted.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.senate.gov\/news\/release\/whitehouse-blasts-right-wing-501c3-groups-pro-gop-political-activities\">letter<\/a> to the CPI, he claimed that the organization selectively offers its services and facilities to Republican candidates and political committees. He called the CPI a \u201cfull-service shop for pro-Trump Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The GOP has been raising its voice against granting excessive powers and resources to the IRS. Back in August, Democrats passed a spending bill that included the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, House Republican conference chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/11\/07\/exclusive-rep-stefanik-vows-repeal-of-87k-new-irs-agents-on-day-one-of-gop-majority\/\">told<\/a> Breitbart that a Republican-majority Congress would repeal the \u201carmy\u201d of new IRS agents and called the move a \u201cgovernment overreach at its worst.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-naveen-athrappully\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/NaveenAthrappully.jpg\" alt=\"Naveen Athrappully\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Naveen Athrappully is a news reporter covering business and world events at The Epoch Times.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) tried to use federal agencies like the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service to act against groups propagating conservative programs, according to documents (pdf)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1695609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1760519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1760519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1695609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1760519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1760519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1760519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}