Eric Schneiderman (New York AG) Defends Authority To Investigate Dark Money Groups

Source: Huffington Post

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is pushing back against two Republican lawmakers who have challenged his investigation into nonprofits that funnel "dark money" into political campaigns and private equity firms that use accounting tricks to avoid millions of dollars in taxes.

In a letter last week, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told Schneiderman that his office should "cease its efforts" to request tax information directly from these entities and that he should instead route any such requests through the Internal Revenue Service.

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Some of these nonprofits, which according to the IRS should be "primarily engaged" in promoting the common good and general welfare of the community, are funnelling millions of dollars without any donor disclosure into powerful super PACs that can spend unlimited sums on political advertising. Some of these groups even share office space.

For example, the nonprofit Crossroads GPS, which was co-founded by Karl Rove and spent $58 million on ads through the end of August, is closely linked with the super PAC American Crossroads. But the nonprofit arm of the Republican-aligned group hasn't had to disclose its donors, fueling speculation about what businesses and individuals might be bankrolling it.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/eric-schneiderman-dark-money-private-equity_n_1910840.html

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Of course, Republicans in the Senate are trying to obstruct the investigation of right wing dark money groups that are channeling corporate money into the election while also allowing such donors to claim tax benefits.