Late Tuesday afternoon, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange put out a release requesting any 501(c)(4) organizations in the state that were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service step forward and contact his office.
“This situation demands full accountability from the IRS and procedures to ensure that safeguards are put in place so that this type of egregious abuse of the public trust does not occur again,” Strange said in the release. “It only makes sense for the President to appoint a special prosecutor to fairly and impartially investigate these troubling allegations to determine who directed these activities and if anyone in or associated with the White House knew of these activities and failed to stop them.”
An al.com story by George Talbot on Monday had revealed two groups, the Mobile-based tea party group Common Sense Campaign and the Wetumpka Tea Party, were targets of IRS. In a follow-up interview with Yellowhammer, Strange said that inspired his query and explained that he was in the fact-finding stages to see if any laws had been broken.
“The more that comes out about this unfolding scandal – the fact that two Alabama groups are known to be targeted, it just occurred to me it could really be far-reaching in our state,” Strange said. “I don’t even know how many groups that are interested in good government here in Alabama, whether they’re related to the tea party or not. My goal is to find out.”
“I plan to get that information together and get it to hopefully what will be a special prosecutor, but if not, to the law enforcement authorities in D.C. and make sure we get to the bottom of it,” he added.
The Alabama AG stopped short of saying his office was considering any action against the federal government on these groups’ behalf. Instead, he emphasized “coordination and cooperation” with federal law enforcement.
“The basic rule in law enforcement is coordination and cooperation between different law enforcement agencies,” he said. “So if laws have been broken, I would hope that whatever authority has jurisdiction would cooperate with us to help get to the bottom of it.”
He did however underscore the serious nature of these revelations.
“It’s one of the most frightening things I’ve encountered in my time in office,” he said. “You know, the awesome power of the federal government targeting people for their political beliefs is extraordinarily troubling. I’m going to be very interested to see how widespread it is. I think that’s something that will be helpful in whatever direction this goes in. If we got a significant number in Alabama, you can be sure that they’ll be a significant number in other states as well.”
He said any groups that felt they were unjustly targeted by the IRS should contact his office at 334-242-7300.
Jeff Poor is the media reporter for the Washington, D.C.-based Daily Caller. He is also a columnist for Mobile-based Lagniappe and a Yellowhammer contributor. He is a graduate of both Auburn University and the University of South Alabama.
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