WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) is requesting the investigation and ultimately revocation of the New Georgia Project’s tax-exempt status in a letter to Acting-Internal Revenue Service Commissioner (IRS), Melanie Krause. The nonprofit was founded by twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams, in 2013 as an organization dedicated to turning out left-leaning voters in Georgia. The organization received what is perhaps the largest state ethics fine in U.S. history after it was recently found by the Georgia State Ethics Commission (GSEC) to have illegally contributed millions to Abrams’s failed 2018 gubernatorial bid while under the leadership of current U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA).

In the letter, Chairman Smith writes: 

“The New Georgia Project, which at the time was led by U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, admitted to 16 violations of state law. The GSEC found that the New Georgia Project failed to disclose over $4.2 million in contributions and over $3.2 million in expenditures during the 2018 election cycle.

“As you know, under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), organizations are strictly prohibited from participating in or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. The IRS may revoke an organization’s tax-exempt status or assess excise taxes for certain types of violations if it determines the organization is noncompliant as it relates to political campaign intervention. According to the GSEC’s findings, the New Georgia Project accepted contributions and made expenditures ‘for communications of express advocacy in the 2018 cycle…to influence the election for Governor to the benefit of Stacey Abrams’ candidacy along with other statewide candidates.’ The New Georgia Project’s intervention in the 2018 election cycle in support of Stacey Abrams and other candidates’ campaigns amounts to a clear violation of their tax-exempt status.”

The letter comes amid an ongoing Ways and Means Committee investigation into the United States’ tax-exempt sector, which has already uncovered numerous abuses of tax-exempt status. Last year, Chairman Smith called on the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of multiple organizations after the Committee’s investigation uncovered ties to Foreign Terrorist Organizations and support of illegal activity in the United States. Just a few weeks later, the Department of Treasury designated the fiscal sponsor of one of the groups mentioned in Chairman Smith’s letters as a “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization.”