Catherine Engelbrecht founded King Street Patriots and True the Vote to monitor and stop voter fraud. She and her husband, Bryan, operate a small manufacturing business outside Houston, Texas that employs about 30 people.
After Catherine founded the two groups, she soon found herself publicly accused by Sen. Barbara Boxer and other prominent Democrats of “suppressing” Democratic voters, though her actual actions involved training citizens to monitor polls on election day. I’ve witnessed True the Vote’s training sessions myself. There is nothing suppressive about them at all.
The accusations, which even extended to publicly accusing Engelbrecht of engaging in a criminal conspiracy, were just the start.
Engelbrecht applied to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status for her groups in 2010. That’s when the trouble began.
- Her application was put through questioning similar to inquiries other groups have reported, including questions about her political aspirations, the groups’ Facebook posts, etc.
- She was subjected to four rounds of IRS questioning.
- Her family business was audited by the IRS, as were her family’s personal finances.
- Her business was subjected to Occupational Health and Safety Administration audits. OSHA found only minor problems, and subjected the Engelbrechts’ business to $25,000 in fines.
- Her business was subjected to an unannounced audit by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives.
- The Federal Bureau of Investigations inquired about someone who had visited one of Engelbrecht’s meetings, and subsequently called up the Engelbrechts just to ask “how they were doing.”
All of this, over the course of about two years, and all of it came after Mrs. Engelbrecht became politically active. Engelbrecht gained national attention after Andrew Breitbart became aware of her groups and spoke at one of its meetings (I introduced Breitbart at that meeting). It’s no secret that the Obama administration viewed Breitbart as one of its chief enemies, along with Fox News and the Tea Party.
Considering the breadth and scope of the inquiries to which Engelbrecht has been subjected, she has had the entire executive branch of the United States government focused on her and targeting her.
Because she is a leading and effective public critic of Barack Obama. But perhaps just as important, because she works against voter fraud by promoting voter ID laws. The Obama administration has made no secret of its hatred for voter ID security laws.
Congress must hold hearings about Engelbrecht’s experience, subpoenaing every single government employee involved to get their testimony and evidence under oath. Who orchestrated these actions against her and her family?
Catherine Engelbrecht was subjected to harassment to the point of tyranny, and it must not stand.
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