The College Fix

In the wake of recent news that conservative and Christian groups have been harshly scrutinized by the IRS, a professor and author said he was targeted by the IRS during the Reagan Administration in retaliation for writing a book some deemed critical of the president’s policies.

Karl Grossman, a journalism professor at State University of New York’s College at Old Westbury and a prolific author, said he was hit with an arduous “field audit” roughly one year after his book “Nicaragua: America’s New Vietnam?” was published in 1985.

Grossman, in an interview with The College Fix, said although he has no proof the audit was in retaliation to his book, the timing of the audit coupled with the bizarre conversation he had with the IRS field agent at the time was enough to convince him.

“It went on for hours and hours,” Grossman said. “He sat there and went through every piece of paper. … Then in the afternoon … he asked if, as a journalist, I had ever faced retaliation for my work. I instantly said, ‘Well, what do you think this is?’”

Grossman recalls that the agent replied the audit was random. In the end, he only asked Grossman to reduce the amount of money he claimed as business use of the home phone, the professor said.

Grossman added the tax-collecting agency has an established pattern of abuse of power, calling it an “outrageous tradition.”

He said such abuses are well-documented in two books in particular: longtime New York Times investigative reporter David Burnham’s “A Law Unto Itself: The IRS and the Abuse of Power,” as well as historian and professor John Andrew’s 2002 book, “Power to Destroy: The Political Uses of the IRS from Kennedy to Nixon.”

“Andrew confirms what many have suspected for a long time: that presidents, political appointees, and bureaucrats have attempted to use the Internal Revenue Service to punish their enemies,” a description of the book on Amazon states, adding it’s a “dense study” that uses tomes of Capital Hill documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act to make its case.

Burnham’s 1991 book chronicles “the IRS’s internal processes, its methods of gathering data on taxpayers, improper uses of such information, and abuses of power, such as its meddling in politics through targeting of activist groups,” its Amazon description states.

“The two authors of the books, these aren’t conspiracy theory nuts,” Grossman said. “David Burnham is a very respected investigative reporter. The other author was a history professor at Franklin and Marshall College.”

The two books, coupled with the ongoing scandal in Washington D.C., and his personal experience in the 80s, proves out a clear and systemic problem within the agency, Grossman said.

“The IRS has a common thread,” Grossman said. “These books show that when there is a conservative in the White House, the IRS goes after liberals, and when there’s a liberal in the White House, the IRS goes the other way around.”

Grossman added the solution is a massive overhaul of the agency.

“Obama’s announcement that the acting commissioner of the IRS was asked and agreed to tender his resignation because of the scandal is far from enough,” he said “What is called for is fundamental change to end the tradition of IRS political tyranny.”

Jennifer Kabbany is associate editor of The College Fix.

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IMAGE: Professor Karl Grossman