Apparently, Texans for Public Justice is an effective watchdog agency. You might remember their complaint against Delay in 2003 that eventually resulted in Delay and his aides' indictments.
How effective are they? Well, now it appears almost certain that one of Delay's lawyers reached out to some friends...and TPJ found itself under intimidation-by-audit.
Craig McDonald, Executive Director for Texans for Public Justice, will be on Al Franken's show today (with Sam Seder guest-hosting) at about 1:30PM Eastern time to talk about the targeting of his non-profit.
More details on the 'Nixonian' foul-play after the break...
Anyone remember this, from 10 years ago?
Nixon urged audits of Jewish contributors
Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 18:41:11 PST
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Newly-released tapes show President Richard Nixon pushed for tax audits of wealthy Jewish contributors to his Democratic rivals, the San Francisco Examiner reported in its Sunday editions.
The Examiner said the revelation was contained in more than 200 hours of recently-released Nixon White House tapes.
Nixon, who resigned in 1974 after being implicated in a cover-up of a break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Building, had a hidden system installed to record his conversations.
...
``Are we going after their tax returns? ...I can only hope that we are, frankly, doing a little persecuting,'' he said.
It certainly sounds a lot like this:
Nonprofit: IRS audit spurred by DeLay ally was abuse
Rep. Johnson of Plano defends action; after 13 months, group cleared
08:55 AM CST on Tuesday, February 28, 2006
By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON - The Austin nonprofit group whose complaint sparked U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's indictment on campaign finance charges accused one of his allies of dirty tricks, saying Monday that U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson of Plano used his influence to prompt a tax audit.
"It's intimidation," said Craig McDonald, founder and director of Texans for Public Justice, which was cleared this month after a 13-month inquiry into whether it violated a ban on partisan activity by tax-exempt groups. "The IRS has every right to audit nonprofit organizations, but we think this was an abuse."
Mr. Johnson, who serves on the House tax-writing committee that oversees the IRS, wrote the agency's commissioner in mid-2004 urging him to open an inquiry.
But why, you ask, would Rep. Sam Johnson care enough to push the IRS to investigate? Because he got a letter urging him to do so from Barnaby W. Zall.
Who's Barnaby W. Zall? Yesterday's WaPo story on the scandal sheds some light:
Zall's biography on his law firm's Web site notes that he was "of counsel" from 1990 to 1998 to the Williams & Jensen law firm, which has long represented DeLay's leadership political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC). Barbara Bonfiglio, a principal at Williams & Jensen, was subpoenaed in January 2004 by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle as part of his inquiry into DeLay.
...
Zall said he could not recall exactly why he became involved, but added that "maybe somebody said something to me." He also confirmed that Bonfiglio was "a longtime friend," and when asked if she had requested his assistance, replied that "anything is possible."
"Anything is possible" indeed.