IRS Hits Low Blow in Ongoing Battle with the Tea Party

The IRS intensified its war against the Tea Party with more delays and an unheard of move.

It has stalled processing non-profit status requests for Tea Party groups yet again despite admitting in 2013 it targeted these groups unfairly.

Instead of approving the applications, the IRS sent back a new round of questions. This time, they released the questions to the public. 

The move put confidential tax information in the public eye, a low blow in the ongoing legal saga.

"The IRS has taken the unprecedented step of publicly filing actual return information,"  Edward Greim, a lawyer who is defending more than 400 groups targeted by the IRS, told the Washington Times.

Although the release of private tax information would usually be considered illegal, tax experts say the IRS acted according to a loophole in their privacy laws. 

Conservative lawmakers and leaders have scrutinized the IRS for years for refusing to approve requests by various Tea Party groups for non-profit status. 

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, represents some of the targeted groups.

"We again demanded that they review their applications and process them in a fair and expeditious manner," he said in a statement.

Sekulow says this is just another example of how the IRS does not fairly handle cases.