Joe Biden's IRS announced on Monday in Washington D.C., that they have begun investigating the tax-exempt status of the American Accountability Foundation (AAF). The group is a conservative non-profit that issued several reports on Biden cabinet nominees. Those nominees ultimately withdrew their nominations. The IRS is demanding internal financial records, as well as meeting notes, publications, and newsletters. 

🚨🚨BREAKING: The IRS is auditing the American Accountability Foundation (@exposingbiden) after @SenWhitehouse criticized AAF and urged the IRS to target conservative groups. https://t.co/IZ66Uq2p9s

— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) November 6, 2023

AAF President Tom Jones alleges that the investigation is a retaliatory move because of those reports. Jones stated,

“This sudden request by the IRS is not random. The IRS is demanding ‘[c]orrespondence files, emails and information posted on a website that relates to current public elected officials’ – clearly a sign that they are targeting our research and education activities. It’s a deliberate attempt to punish and suppress AAF’s activities. It is surely no coincidence that AAF—the very organization that exposed the weaponization of the IRS—is now the target of it.”

AAF was approved by the IRS for tax-exempt status in August of 2021, and since that time, has leveled criticism against several Biden cabinet nominees, including Federal Communications Chair nominee Gigi Sohn. According to AAF reports, Sohn donated money to several Democrat Senate campaigns including John Fetterman and Catherine Cortez Masto, and even Joe Biden's campaign between April and October of 2020. AAF sent letters to those senators to recuse themselves from Sohn's nomination process and called for Sohn to withdraw her name. AAF also cited comments made by Sohn, such as referring to Fox News as having "had the most negative impact on our democracy," and also called it, “state-sponsored propaganda, with few if any opposing viewpoints." Sohn withdrew from the nomination.

AAF also took National Highway Traffic Safety Administration nominee Ann Carson to task in 2022 for her comments that Americans love “their cars and their cheap gas.” The White House eventually withdrew Carlson's nomination. AAF was instrumental in also getting Federal Aviation Administration nominee Phillip Washington to withdraw his name from the nomination.

The American Accountability Foundation was not the first conservative organization to face possible scrutiny by the IRS. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) tried to have the AAF's partner organization, the Conservative Partnership Institute, audited and also attempted to have an investigation started into another conservative organization, Turning Point USA. In letters to the IRS, Whitehouse stated that the purpose of any audits of AAF was to ensure that the group “operates in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code."

But Tom Jones believes the IRS, at the behest of the Biden administration, has other motives. He stated,

“We demand that this abuse is put to an end at once. The Biden administration is acting as the gangster arm of the Left. Our Constitution and Declaration of Independence guarantee our God-given right to speak the truth about the powerful without being punished and harassed. We will do everything in our power to keep America free.”

AAF's attorney Cleta Mitchell agreed with Jones, saying, “As the attorney for many conservative, tea party groups targeted and harassed by the Obama IRS a decade ago, this certainly smacks of the exact same tactics used by the IRS then….and apparently being used again now against AAF."

Democrat @SenWhitehouse tried to use federal agencies like the #DOJ and #IRS to act against groups propagating conservative programs, according to documents obtained by the watchdog American Accountability Foundation @ExposingBiden. https://t.co/WSsXssOaFI

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) December 3, 2022