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| Chris Littleton interview on IRS targeting: An interview with Chris Litttleton, who founded conservative group American Junto that turns out to be on of the first groups targeted and tested for political activity by the IRS |
A now-defunct political group called American Junto that began in the Cincinnati area apparently was one of the IRS’ first test cases as the agency tried to determine whether such groups deserved tax-exempt status or if they should be denied for political advocacy.
Chris Littleton, 34, started American Junto in 2008 with grand dreams of turning it into a nonprofit education agency around what he calls “citizenship and freedom issues.” Littleton, a self-proclaimed conservative from West Chester, said he and his friends officially applied for tax-exempt status in late 2009/early 2010, and after being ignored for months, they started receiving a lot of questions from the IRS.
Littleton, who gave up trying to get tax-exempt status and shut the organization down because of the hassle, went on to start two more groups that were among 162 organizations on a list obtained by USA Today and released last week. The list gives the most insightful look to date about the procedures used and reasons why individual groups were held up during the process.
In the email that included that list, a top D.C. supervisor referred to American Junto as one of two test cases nationally and ordered other IRS agents to back off examining Littleton’s other two groups until Junto’s status could be determined (American Junto was not included on the list).
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