THE IRS WAS ENTIRELY TOO LENIENT WITH THE rIGHT:

A single six-figure donor accounted for 100 percent of funding raised by a nonprofit run by acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker before he became Jeff Sessions' chief of staff last year, new tax documents obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics reveal. [...]

CRP discovered FACT's first tax return back in 2016, revealing its funding -- $600,000 for 2014, its first year of operation -- came entirely from a donor-advised fund called DonorsTrust, which acts as a pass-through vessel managing the money flow from wealthy individuals and foundations to nonprofit organizations while allowing the donors to remain anonymous. Beneficiaries of DonorsTrust include a breadth of conservative and libertarian initiatives. Due to DonorsTrust's design, although we are able to reveal the direct funder of FACT by piecing together grants from different tax returns, the ultimate donor remains hidden.

New tax returns obtained by CRP show that wasn't the only time DonorsTrust was FACT's main funder. In fact, DonorsTrust accounted for 100 percent of FACT's income from donations again in 2015, in 2016 and its most recent tax return -- meaning Whitaker's organization that claimed to be "dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency" has gotten all of its funds from a group that exists mainly as a vehicle for donors to elude transparency every year since its inception.

In their application for tax-exempt status, FACT -- then called the Free Market America Educational Foundation -- told the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that its purpose was to "conduct research and provide informational studies on free market concepts in relation to environmental regulations and policy." The IRS approved the group's application for tax-exempt charity status on July 21, 2014, according to its determination letter.

Tweet   @brothersjudd