‘BOLO’

Treasury Inspector General: IRS Used 'Inappropriate Criteria' to Target Conservative Groups

After report shows inappropriate targeting.

A Treasury inspector general’s report on the widening political-targeting scandal at the IRS leaked Tuesday, revealing that the tax agency used “inappropriate criteria” to single out tax-exempt applications by conservative groups for special scrutiny. The report says IRS officials had a list of criteria for targeting applications that included names with the words “tea party,” “9/12 project,” and “patriot.” The targeted applications were placed into a special folder marked “BOLO” (Be on the Lookout). The IRS responded to the report saying that the targeting was not motivated by political bias, but because of “insufficient sensitivity” caused by a spike in the number of applications they received. In a statement Tuesday night, President Obama said the report’s findings were “intolerable and inexcusable,” and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew called them “deeply troubling.”