ICYMI: IRS Investigates Right-Wing Group After Failure to Disclose Political Spending

New reporting from Politico reveals that the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) – a shadowy group that often touts its role in blocking Biden nominees – failed to disclose spending on political ads.

“If the IRS deems a group such as AAF has conducted too much of that political activity, it could issue a penalty or, for particularly egregious behavior, put its tax exempt status at risk,” Politico reports. The piece used Accountable.US research to reveal that, “the American Accountability Foundation, reported no spending on lobbying or advertising in 2021 and 2022…But ad spending data shows AAF has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its research attacking President Joe Biden’s nominees, from a Supreme Court justice to agency leaders.”

The story also details how AAF engaged in a campaign to block Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the bench, often bragging about its role in making it “significantly harder for the President and his administration to enact policies they were elected to implement.”

In addition, the organization took credit for the withdrawal of Gigi Sohn’s nomination to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Sohn, a former top advisor to the FCC chair who would have been the FCC’s first-ever LGBTQ commissioner, called out AAF’s misleading attacks and the “industry interests” working to block her nomination in an interview.

Accountable.US launched its Monitoring Influence database to document and track the dark influence network made up of dangerous groups like the American Accountability Foundation. Learn more at MonitoringInfluence.org.

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