The American Accountability Foundation researches and investigates federal nominees put forward by the Biden administration. In one notable case, the group exposed the extreme liberal bias and unethical practices of FCC nominee Gigi Sohn, who withdrew earlier this year. Now the AAF has been informed it is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service.
Yitz Friedman, communications manager for AAF, says it's "a badge of honor, in a way" to become the latest group to be targeted by a weaponized IRS. "We've committed the great crime of being successful, [having] actually exposed and taken down a number of these nominees," he tells AFN.
Friedman says it's clear the Biden administration doesn't like to be shown up. "They also don't appreciate the extent to which we've just embarrassed them by being more thorough in our vetting and our investigations than they themselves have been," he adds.
A year ago, AAF exposed an effort by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) to pressure the IRS to conduct investigations on conservative nonprofits. Last week, Whitehouse mocked AAF by posting an article about the audit and the phrase, "someone seems nervous," along with a pair of eyes emoji – as if to say, "we're watching you," Friedman argues.
"And it's terrifying, these thuggish, Soviet-style kind of gangster-like tactics," he adds.
The AAF spokesman says the Biden administration seems to think they can repeatedly nominate "unqualified diversity" hires because the mainstream media will go along with it.
"They seem to have this confidence in the media, that they could basically get away with nominating really radical, really extreme, really unqualified people," says Friedman.
The IRS has requested nearly all AAF's external communications on all activities, to include correspondence files, emails, and information posted on a related website. "The Biden administration is acting as the gangster arm of the Left," says AAF president Tom Jones.
