TLG Managing Partner Jeff Tenenbaum Quoted in New York Times Article, "Trump Invokes Kirk's Killing in Seeking to Silence Opponents on Left"

TLG Managing Partner Jeff Tenenbaum was quoted in a New York Times article entitled, "Trump Invokes Kirk's Killing in Seeking to Silence Opponents on Left."

"Targeting the tax-exempt statuses of nonprofits that are critical of Mr. Trump would most likely face legal challenges. The Internal Revenue Service only takes that step after conducting a potentially lengthy audit, and an organization has several opportunities to appeal the decision. Federal law also prohibits the president from directing the I.R.S. to audit specific organizations, and I.R.S. employees can face criminal penalties if they obey an order from the White House to do so."

"The Trump administration bumped up against these limitations earlier this year when Mr. Trump called for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status. White House officials strained to argue that any I.R.S. audit of the university was independent of Mr. Trump’s public statements."

"But there is another method. Any organization that the White House designates as a terrorist organization loses its tax-exempt status. Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday he would like to designate a range of unspecified groups as domestic terrorist organizations. Since the loss of tax-exempt status is automatic, it is much harder for a nonprofit to challenge the decision under a terrorist designation than it is under the normal process."

“To my knowledge, the only way the president or administration could immediately revoke the tax exempt status of a tax-exempt organization would be to go to the terrorism designation route,” said Jeff Tenenbaum, a lawyer who specializes in nonprofits."

"Losing tax-exempt status can be very consequential for nonprofit groups. Not only may they owe taxes on any income, but donors would no longer be able to write off donations to the group on their own taxes. That could cause funding sources to dry up."

"But the administration also cannot easily designate domestic groups as terrorists, according to law enforcement officials. While the State Department keeps a list of foreign terrorist organizations, there is no similar mechanism for designating domestic groups as terrorists."