NAACP Releases Documents in IRS Audit

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., governor of Maryland, urged the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the NAACP to determine whether it had broken federal rules that prohibit charities from engaging in partisan politics, reports The Sun, in Baltimore.

Mr. Ehrlich made the request when he was a member of Congress, the newspaper said. It said that the request was included in documents that the IRS turned over to the NAACP. The civil-rights group has asked the government for additional documents to show whether other people also asked the IRS to investigate.

Mr. Ehrlich’s spokesman said that he made the request to follow up on a constituent’s concerns, and that he was not passing any judgment on whether the NAACP had done anything wrong.

The IRS announced just a few weeks before Election Day 2004 that it was investigating the civil-rights group over comments made by its chairman to criticize President Bush. The NAACP has denied wrongdoing and says the IRS action was politically motivated.

Read The Chronicle ’s past coverage of the NAACP case.