Finally the public gets a chance to see for themselves just how intrusive the IRS's requests to the Tea Party applicants were with True the Vote's court filing. Here's a link to the complaint in True the Vote, Inc. v. IRS, et al, cause 1:13-cv-00734 in the U.S. District Court of DC.
See the letter the IRS sent to True the Vote with all the questions here. The information requirements go on for eight pages and include this one:
13. Provide the following information for all the events you will conduct for 2012 and 2013:
a) The time, location, and content schedule of each event
b) Identify handouts you provided to the audience
c) Identify workshop materials that instructors will use
d) The names and credentials of the instructors
e) If speeches or forums will be conducted in the event, provide detailed contents of the speeches or forums, names of the speakers or panels, and their credentials. If any speakers or panel members will be paid, provide the amount will be paid for each person. If not, please indicate they volunteered to conduct the event.
f) The names of persons from your organization and the amount of time they will spend on the event. Indicate the name and amount of time they will spend on the event. Indicate the name and amount of compensation that will be paid to each person. If no one will be paid, indicate this event will be conducted by volunteers to each person.
g) Indicate the percentage of time and resources you will spend on these activities in relation to 100% of all your activities.
The letter was dated February 8, 2012, so question #13 required speculation about the future, under penalty of perjury, of course. But the election was in November of 2012, so why did they include 2013? Was this supposed to provide the IRS with plausible deniability?
Today Lois Lerner famously invoked the Fifth Amendment at a House committee hearing. The above letter was signed by Janine L. Estes with cc to Cleta Mitchell, Esq. and Richard F. Riley, Esq. So if the House needs more witnesses to question, there's a good place to look.
Post script. Many of the published IRS forms have a posted estimate of the completion time. Gathering all of the information they required here could take weeks. It's no wonder many of the Tea Party groups simply gave up.
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