(RNS) — President Trump told reporters on Thursday (April 17) that multiple pastors who gathered for a White House Easter service this week had complained about being investigated by the IRS over the past four years.
“They said, ‘Sir, I was targeted by the IRS, and the FBI came in, sir, and I’ve been going through Hell for years,’” Trump said in a discussion in the Oval Office about his threat to revoke the tax exempt status of Harvard University.
Religion News Service reached out to the pastors who attended the service to corroborate Trump’s account. Most did not immediately respond, but Pastor Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, confirmed in an email that he told Trump at the event that he had been investigated by the IRS.
“I told the President that our church was the subject of an IRS investigation launched under the Biden administration that spanned several years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to complaints from the Freedom From Religion Foundation,” Jeffress wrote. “The case was ultimately resolved in our favor.”
For years, advocates for the separation of church and state have urged the Internal Revenue Service to hold churches that endorse political candidates accountable, saying that such endorsements violate a provision of the U.S. tax code, known as the Johnson amendment, that bars nonprofits from taking sides in electoral campaigns. Little has come of those concerns, as the IRS has long been reluctant to investigate churches.
Asked for documentation proving that the investigation occurred, Jeffress said his church is turning all of the documentation regarding the investigation over to the White House, adding that “any release of that information will come from them.”
The White House did not immediately provide documentation when asked by RNS, saying they were looking into the matter.
Verifying the investigation without documentation may prove difficult. Asked about the alleged investigation, a representative for the IRS said federal employees are barred from disclosing tax return information, “including whether the agency has or has not investigated a particular entity.”
According to the FFRF, the group filed a complaint about First Baptist in July 2020, before the election and while Trump was still president. It focused on a visit by then-Vice President Mike Pence made to First Baptist for a “Celebrate Freedom Sunday.” Jeffress said he was praying that Pence would have a second term as vice president and then be elected president.
“Mr. Vice President, I know I probably should not say this, by my congregation knows that has never stopped me before,” said Jeffress, according to a recording of the service posted on First Baptist’s YouTube channel. He added: “We are praying that when you finish your term in 2024, we don’t want you moving out of the West Wing, we just want you moving down the hall a few doors and continue to build on the legacy of the most faith-friendly president in history.”
The FFRF argued Jeffress’ remarks amounted to an endorsement.
Only one congregation in recent history has lost its exemption for electioneering — namely, an upstate New York church that took out anti-Bill Clinton ads in several large newspapers in 1992. It has not been for lack of trying. For years, secular advocacy groups have complained about events such as “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” a campaign involving thousands of pastors in which they endorse candidates from the pulpit and send recordings of their sermons to the IRS, hoping to produce a test case to overturn the Johnson amendment.
