Watch with us (via FoxNews.com here) as the House Oversight Committee asks questions to key IRS officials about the IRS targeting conservative groups (including NOM).
Watch with us (via FoxNews.com here) as the House Oversight Committee asks questions to key IRS officials about the IRS targeting conservative groups (including NOM).

The ongoing IRS scandal continues to expose the egregious government abuse of power toward groups opposing the liberal ideologue-machine currently occupying the White House.
I'm proud to say that NOM has taken the lead in the effort to hold the government accountable for this horrific escalation in the abuse of power, which is corrupting democracy and undermining the basic human right to participate in public life.
In fact, following the scandal that broke last week, we are the first group in the country to officially announce a lawsuit against the IRS!
Thank you, as always, for standing with us in defense of marriage!
WASHINGTON—The National Organization for Marriage intends to sue the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) next week amid allegations that the government tax-collecting agency leaked confidential donor information to a key political rival.
The accusation is one of many coming to light this week against the IRS, which has admitted to targeting conservative groups for audits and denying others tax-exempt status. But John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), told me Friday that his organization’s lawsuit has been in the works since 2012.
“We asked for an investigation a year ago,” he said.
On March 30, 2012, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which advocates for the legalization of gay marriage, released confidential NOM donor lists and addresses on its website. HRC attempted to conceal the source of the information, but Eastman said computer technicians were able to see redacted portions of the PDF document, proving it had originated from the IRS.
Eastman said NOM has not determined how much it will seek in damages, but he underscored the significance of the illegal disclosure. “One of the charges for impeachment drawn up against President [Richard] Nixon was the abuse of the IRS for political purposes,” he said.
Amidst all the activity last week we forgot to mention that NOM was also mentioned during this Special Report segment:
Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) used NOM's example as a particularly egregious example of the IRS targeting conservative groups:
Here are some highlights from yesterday's Ways and Means House Committee hearing on the IRS targeting conservative groups. NOM's case was mentioned several times:
Our Chairman John Eastman explained to listeners of the Mike Huckabee show what is happening and why it matters:
Neil Cavuto on FoxNews Business devoted an entire segment last night during prime time to our announcement we will sue the IRS for illegally divulging our confidential tax returns:
Today Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell discussed at length NOM's situation on the floor of the U.S. Senate and says it merits investigation:
...“Last May, Senator Hatch — the top Republican on the Finance Committee — sent a letter to the IRS inquiring about reports that someone at the IRS had leaked confidential donor information from NOM to an advocacy group whose political goals were in direct conflict with its own.
“NOM has since released documents suggesting that this information came from one source — from within the IRS itself. All this took place, by the way, in the middle of a national political campaign.
“Significantly, one of the NOM donors whose name was leaked was none other than Mitt Romney. What a coincidence. And what about the group it was leaked to?
“Well, it was headed by a guy who was named a co-chair of the Obama campaign, and who published the confidential donor information on the website of the organization he ran – an organization opposed to the goals of NOM.
“So here’s another situation that, at the very least, clearly merits investigation. There are allegations here that someone at the IRS committed a very serious crime that had the effect of chilling the speech of a political organization that happened to be on the wrong side of the current Administration.
“Yet, a year later, Senator Hatch has yet to hear anything back from the IRS. And, according to the folks at NOM, neither have they."
You can read his entire set of remarks here.
Last night our Chairman John Eastman appeared on Greta Van Susteren to discuss the IRS leak of NOM's documents:
NOM's Chairman John Eastman has published a column in USAToday which we urge you to read and share!
"...For the IRS to leak any organization's tax return to its political opponents is an outrageous breach of ethics and, if proven, constitutes a felony. Every organization — liberal and conservative — should shudder at the idea of the IRS playing politics with its confidential tax return information. But the situation here is even more egregious because the head of the HRC was at the time serving as a national co-chair of President Obama's re-election campaign.
The release of NOM's confidential tax return to the Human Rights Campaign is the canary in the coal mine of IRS corruption. Contrary to assertions that the targeting of Tea Party groups was an error in judgment by low-level IRS bureaucrats, the release of NOM's confidential data to a group headed by an Obama campaign co-chair suggests the possibility of complicity at the highest levels of politics and government. This wasn't a low-level error in judgment; it was a conscious act to reward a prominent Obama supporter while punishing an opponent.
That's the reason the IRS has not been very interested in getting to the bottom of what happened. Federal investigators have interviewed NOM officials about the matter, but our efforts to find out what has become of the investigation have been stonewalled at every turn."
Dear Marriage Supporter,
Of all the scandals plaguing the Obama administration this week, the revelation that the Internal Revenue Service targeted Tea Party and conservative groups for harassment during the last Presidential election is perhaps the most shocking.
But it pales in comparison to what we have been attempting to expose for over a year: that the IRS is also guilty of leaking our confidential tax return to our opponents at the Human Rights Campaign!
Now that the eyes of the nation are fixed on this exploding IRS scandal, this is our opportunity to expose the truth!
Only the unique powers of Congress to subpoena, question and investigate will help us expose the truth about how HRC's Joe Solmonese, a national co-chair of the campaign to reelect President Obama, came to possess the confidential documents NOM submitted only to the IRS to comply fully with the law.
This is the smoking gun that proves the IRS not only harassed conservative groups, it went so far as to release confidential and sensitive information to their liberal opponents in a Presidential election year! What's very clear is that the IRS still has more to hide and Americans deserve to know the full truth.
Already we've had huge success calling attention to this critical story. The front page of the Drudge Report, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and many more top news outlets are covering our story today.
But I need your help to ensure Congress launches an investigation into what the IRS did to NOM and how it came to be that an Obama campaign co-chair gained possession our private and confidential tax returns.
Thank you — we will never stop fighting to expose the truth and fight for the truth of marriage.
More and more top news outlets are drawing attention to this important story!
"...In April 2012, the Huffington Post and the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, posted IRS documents indicating GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney had given $10,000 to the anti-gay marriage group. While the same inspector general who uncovered the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups was investigating the case, NOM has been frustrated with the pace of the investigation."
"...For over a year, NOM has argued that the IRS directly leaked confidential tax information, which included a list of private donors. With the IRS back under harsh scrutiny after it apologized for targeting Tea Party groups, NOM is taking legal action, and inviting other conservative causes to do so as well."
"...Accusations of improper IRS behavior surfaced again in 2012 when a prominent anti-gay marriage group accused the agency of leaking private tax files that listed then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney's group as a contributor. The National Organization for Marriage documents were later published by a group whose president was tied to the Obama re-election campaign.
NOM claimed that someone from the IRS fed the liberal Human Rights Campaign documents listing its 2008 contributors. On that list was a $10,000 donation from Romney’s political action committee. The Human Rights Campaign then published the documents online, saying it had uncovered one of the group’s “top secret donors,” and accused Romney of attacking lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality."
"...The National Organization for Marriage, a conservative organization whose confidential records were leaked by the IRS to its left-wing critics, announced on Tuesday it will sue the tax agency for damages. NOM’s 2008 tax return was, according to a press release the group sent out on Tuesday, taken by the IRS and subsequently leaked to its primary political opponent the Human Rights Campaign."
"...Matt Lewis reported on the leak at the time, which culminated in HuffPo trying to make political hay of a Romney-affiliated donation to NOM. In 2012, NOM requested an investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the same office that authored the draft report on the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups, which is to be released this week. They were interviewed, but never heard anything of an investigation’s process: “Nothing has come of the investigation if there is indeed one, and the agency has refused to answer any questions about the status of its examination,” NOM said in a press release."
Our press release yesterday is now top news on Drudge Report this morning:
That headline links to this story on Brietbart.com:
One of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign co-chairmen used a leaked document from the IRS to attack GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the 2012 election, according to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
NOM, a pro-traditional marriage organization, claims the IRS leaked their 2008 confidential financial documents to the rival Human Rights Campaign. Those NOM documents were published on the Huffington Post on March 30, 2012. At that time, Joe Solmonese, a left-wing activist and Huffington Post contributor, was the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Solmonese was also a 2012 Obama campaign co-chairman.
... “Not only has Romney signed NOM’s radical marriage pledge, now we know he’s one of the donors that NOM has been so desperate to keep secret all these years,” Solmonese added.
Solmonese resigned his position at HRC the next day and took up a position as an Obama campaign co-chair.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 14, 2013
Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Jen Campbell (703-683-5004)

Washington, D.C. — The National Organization for Marriage today announced they will file a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service seeking damages over the illegal theft of the organization's confidential tax return from 2008 and its subsequent leak to the Human Rights Campaign, NOM's principal political opponent.
"Not only has the IRS retaliated against conservative, small-government and tea party groups as they apply for recognition of tax exemption AND lied about it, but it has criminally released our confidential tax return including the identity of dozens of major donors to a political enemy," said Brian Brown, NOM's president. "In addition to being our principal combatant in the war on traditional marriage, the HRC's president at the time was serving as a Co-Chair of President Obama's reelection campaign. This is a chilling set of circumstances that should ring alarm bells across the nation."
NOM has retained ActRight Legal Foundation to file the lawsuit in federal district court in the District of Columbia. Separately, the conservative public interest law firm will also file a lawsuit on behalf of another nonprofit, which was subjected to inappropriate political activity in the review of their nonprofit application.
"The very core of our ordered society has been shaken by this political roughing-up of nonprofits by the IRS" says NOM's Chairman, Dr. John C. Eastman. "As a constitutional law scholar I can tell you that no nonprofit should ever have to experience this kind of retaliation. I am pleased to announce that the excellent attorneys at ActRight Legal Foundation have identified a strong legal strategy that should ultimately hold the IRS accountable and result in lasting change inside of the IRS."
NOM expects that ActRight Legal Foundation will file the lawsuit later this month.
Any nonprofit who has experienced this IRS retaliation and illegal activity is encouraged to contact ActRight Legal Foundation because you may have a legal remedy.
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To schedule an interview with Dr. John C. Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), eray@crcpublicrelations.com, or Jen Campbell (x145), jcampbell@crcpublicrelations.com, at tel:703-683-5004.
Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).