Documents Reveal Secretive Hollywood Group's Shady Donations To Conservative Politicians

[Purveyor]

Before Republican Senator Ted Cruz flew to Los Angeles to speak to Hollywood’s secretive right-wing organization, Friends of Abe (FOA), Cruz suggested to the Hollywood Reporter that IRS’s reluctance to immediately ordain FOA as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax-free charity was a left-wing government conspiracy. (IRS exemption requirements for 501(c)(3) charities can be found here.)

The online Hollywood Reporter quotes Cruz on 2/20/2014 saying, “FOA should respond to the IRS as it would any McCarthyite request for information.” Invoking Joseph McCarthy in the negative seems particularly odd for extreme right-winger Ted Cruz. Other prominent FOA members defend McCarthy as a heroic victim of traitorous communists who pose as being members of the Democrat Party. Ann Coulter, a Friends of Abe darling who spoke at one of its events, wrote a book called Slander that defends McCarthy as the ultimate patriot and insults McCarthy’s opponents, who included the five-star General George Marshall, as traitors.

What is Friends of Abe anyway? Founded by actor Gary Sinise, prominent FoAers include Clint Eastwood, Kelsey Grammer, Jerry Bruckheimer, Patricia Heaton, Robert Duvall, and David Mamet and perhaps as many as 1,500 total members. Friends of Abe, or FOA as the group is known among members, had been seeking nonprofit charity status since early 2011. Jeremy Boreing, an apparent documentary filmmaker who serves as the public operative for Sinise, went on a media blitz in late January and early February, decrying the IRS for purposely withholding the group’s request for 501(c)(3) status as part of a program to “target” and “harass” conservatives.

Conservatives claiming “victimhood” at the hands of the IRS has become an overused meme. On the Fox News Megyn Kelly show, The Kelly File, reporter Trace Gallagher proclaimed, “The group is called ‘Friends of Abe’ named after Abraham Lincoln, and it’s made up of 1,500 conservative members of the entertainment industry. They gather for things like meals, drinks, and to learn about the political process. It is now seeking 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, so that donations could be tax deductible just like some progressive groups. Getting the exemption would prohibit the group from partisan activity. Now ‘Friends of Abe’ acknowledges having speakers like Karl Rove and Herman Cain, but they deny having a political agenda. ‘Friends of Abe’ says it doesn’t just suspect they were being targeted by the IRS, they say they were told they’re being targeted by the IRS.”

According to Boreing (on “The Kelly File”), “We understand through our attorneys that our agent at the IRS who was handling our file, specifically said we had been targeted on the BOLO (Be On the Lookout) list. So I think that probably the reason we’re being targeted is we filed as a conservative educational fellowship.”

more...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/30/documents-reveal-secretive-hollywood-groups-shady-donations-to-conservative-politicians/

[Dawson Leery]

1. Could there be another motive for Gary's "support" of veterans?

"When the story of the Friends of Abe/IRS feud broke, Cole/Stein forwarded to us documents proving that FOA had been raising money with a false claim of 501(c)(3) status at least three years before they bullied the IRS into actually giving it to them. FOA was running a scam, a scam that the IRS, pilloried by Fox News accusations of “targeting” conservatives, was apparently willing to overlook when it granted the status for real last week.

Far from being victims, FOA was perpetrating a fraud, probably an illegal one.

There is also evidence that Sinise was funneling FOA money through his supposed “veterans” charity. According to the site CitizenAudit.org, in 2010, when Sinise got approval for his own nonprofit, the Gary Sinise Foundation, he listed “Abe’s Pal” as a secondary DBA. “Abe’s Pal” was the name through which FOA solicited money."

FOA is the next generation of McCarthyites.

[loudsue]

2. In other words, their filing itself gave them away.

Typical republican stupid.

[davidpdx]

3. I wonder if any other the other usual Republicans in Hollywood were involved

Bruce Willis
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Adam Sandler
Rob Schneider
Vince Vaughn
Chuck Norris
Tom Selleck
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Miller
Sylvester Stallone
Jim Belushi
Angie Harmon
Mel Gibson
Tom Berenger
Ben Stein
Drew Carey
Jon Voight
James Caan
Tony Danza
Stephen Baldwin

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Dennis Hopper is currently deceased and thus not a active Republican.....

Dead for a few years now.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. ,

,

[Iris]

5. David Mamet? How? n/t

[MADem]

6. Waaah, waaah, we're victims! No yer not--yer CRIMINALS!!!!!!!!

This is some pretty sleazy stuff. I'm rec'ing this so more will see it....damn!

Far from being victims, FOA was perpetrating a fraud, probably an illegal one.

There is also evidence that Sinise was funneling FOA money through his supposed “veterans” charity. According to the site CitizenAudit.org, in 2010, when Sinise got approval for his own nonprofit, the Gary Sinise Foundation, he listed “Abe’s Pal” as a secondary DBA. “Abe’s Pal” was the name through which FOA solicited money.

In the Sinise Foundation’s filings with the IRS, it lists its very specific goals: “To serve the nation by honoring our defenders, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need,” adding that the nonprofit will provide “relief for wounded warriors, entertainment for service members and their families, school supplies for children where U.S. troops are deployed, and scholarships for veterans.”

If Sinise was indeed funneling money from a partisan GOP organization through his foundation, that may very well be another instance of criminal activity, along with the fraudulent claim that FOA had 501(c)(3) status.

Boreing’s claim that FOA has no political objective and engages in no political advocacy is torpedoed by emails from Sinise and the FOA main office. According to source David Cole/Stein, outright solicitations for donations by politicians were generally kept out of FOA emails and reserved for the secret meetings, FOA did indeed send out an email on September 16, 2010 (less than two months before the midterm elections), asking members to visit the “Young Guns” GOP PAC fundraising website. In the email, FOA unambiguously stated, “America is standing at a critical crossroads, and Young Guns candidates give America the best opportunity to move our country in the right direction.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/30/documents-reveal-secretive-hollywood-groups-shady-donations-to-conservative-politicians/

So much for "Lt. Dan" helping the vets...what an asshole.

[octoberlib]

7. Good post! Thank you! nt