Massive hack reveals anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel may have broken IRS rules

A massive hack of the Liberty Counsel — a right-wing Christian legal advocacy group that has been certified as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SLPC) — has revealed that its affiliated nonprofits may have broken IRS tax rules forbidding nonprofits from endorsing candidates for political office.

The hack — carried out by an unknown person affiliated with the Anonymous hacktivist collective and published online at the website Enlace Hacktivista — contained several hundreds of gigabytes worth of web pages, emails, documentation, and financial donor data from Liberty Counsel and its affiliated nonprofits, including Liberty Counsel Action, Faith & Liberty, and Christians in Defense of Israel.

In a press release the hacker wrote, “Noticing a worrying trend of far-right and anti-abortion activists aligning themselves with the evangelical Christian movement, hiding their funding sources behind laws that allow church ministries to keep their donations secret, we decided to bring about some much-needed radical transparency.”

Liberty Counsel Action is designated by the IRS as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, which allows it to endorse or oppose candidates for office. However, the IRS designates Faith & Liberty and Christians in Defense of Israel as 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. As such, they’re forbidden by the IRS from endorsing or opposing candidates for office.

The investigative news website The Intercept found…

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