The David Brock-founded, far-left group American Bridge 21st Century potentially violated its tax-exempt status by engaging in political activities while billing itself as a nonprofit, according a complaint filed Thursday with the Internal Revenue Service.
The Patriots Foundation, a right-leaning ethics group, filed a complaint with the IRS claiming Brock’s group is largely a political organization and therefore has violated tax laws. The complaint obtained by Fox News was first reported by Bloomberg.
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“American Bridge has a super-PAC arm that can spend unlimited sums to influence elections. But the primary purpose of nonprofits organized under section 501(c)4 of the tax code like American Bridge cannot be politics. The complaint quotes material given to potential donors to the nonprofit arm in 2017 saying the organization’s mission is ‘to take on Donald Trump,’” Bloomberg’s Bill Allison wrote.
Brock, a longtime ally of the Clintons, has dedicated his career to combating conservatives and right-leaning media. Brock actually began his career as a conservative and has used extreme rhetoric to attack both sides throughout his time in the public eye. He once admitted to lying in a book in order to ruin Anita Hill’s credibility.
David Brock, a longtime ally of the Clintons, has dedicated his career to combating conservatives and right-leaning media.
“Groups like American Bridge do not have to disclose their donors, which is why they are sometimes called ‘dark money,’” Allison wrote.
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Liberal billionaire George Soros has been a prominent donor to American Bridge 21st Century and the group spends millions on ads attacking President Trump.
The complaint accused American Bridge 21st Century Foundation of engaging in “serious and deliberate violations of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (“IRC”) and abused its tax-exempt status” and outlined specific examples, referring to the far-left group as “AB21CF” throughout.
“Specifically, as detailed below, AB21CF is not operated exclusively for an exempt- purpose; is operated primarily for political purposes; has participated in an impermissible excess benefit transaction with its founder David Brock and True Blue Media LLC; has provided an improper private benefit to Brock and True Blue; has used its income and assets for the personal gain of Brock; and has engaged in commercial, for-profit business activity through its investment in True Blue Media,” the complaint said.
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The complaint said “AB21CF appears to have abandoned any attempts at credibly describing itself as a social welfare organization under section 501(c)(4). Instead, it has become singularly focused on one mission, ‘to take on Donald Trump.’”
The lengthy document claimed the group planned to create “a 47-person war room to take on Donald Trump with a staff of 23 researchers, a communications team of 16” who feed work to the press for the purposes of rapid-response.
“This is not a proper nonprofit purpose,” the complaint said. “The IRS should undertake an examination of AB21CF to determine the extent to which it has misused its tax-exempt status.”
The complaint concluded: “Further, the IRS should determine that AB21CF has engaged in egregious and systemic violations of its tax-exempt status, and take appropriate action as warranted including, but not limited to: revoking its tax- exempt status… imposing any appropriate penalties and additions to tax; and referring violations to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution.
The Patriots Foundation also filed similar complaints against Media Matters For America and The Franklin Education Forum.
American Bridge president Bradley Beychok dismissed any wrongdoing by the far-left group.
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“The Patriots Foundation has chosen to purposely mislead the public in order to further its right wing agenda,” Beychok told Bloomberg.
“He added that Brock resigned from the organization in 2016, before the transfers to True Blue Media were made, and that the group’s board of directors determined the investment would further the mission of American Bridge,” Allison added.
