Real News' and 'Wilkow' IRS Scandal Coverage Highlights

A bombshell report released Friday that the IRS admitted to targeting conservative groups in 2012 has dominated the news-cycle to start the week, with the president even addressing the controversy, characterizing the admitted act as "outrageous."

As reported by TheBlaze Friday:

The Internal Revenue Service “inappropriately flagged” conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status, a top IRS official said Friday.

Organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups.

In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

In February 2012, TheBlaze received emails from several Tea Party groups alleging partisan and almost thuggish behavior on the part of the IRS. By March, several Republican senators and The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) were starting to ask questions about the IRS’ treatment of Tea Party groups, with 12 GOP senators sending a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Schulman questioning the nature of the relationship between the IRS and Tea Party.

Following the revelations over the last four days, at least a half dozen conservative groups are already lining up to sue the IRS.  The Wall Street Journal reports that the inspector general's office has been conducting an audit of the IRS's handling of the applications process and is expected to release a report this week.

The discussion of the scandal opened up each show on TheBlaze TV's Monday evening lineup.

On 'Real News' Monday the panel was joined by David French of the ACLJ to discuss the bombshell IRS revelations and subsequent reactions by the White House and Republicans.

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Andrew Wilkow's opening monologue focused on the report, and was joined later on the show by leaders from Tea Party groups targeted by the IRS: Eric Wilson from Kentucky 9/12 Project and Tom Zawistowski, former president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition.

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