Russian asset Donald Trump's Treasury Department has issued a new ruling that would protect the identity of donors to some tax-exempt organizations like Planned Parenthood. And, more to the point, like the National Rifle Association. Yeah, the NRA that is increasingly proving to be another Russian asset helping Republicans win political power.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the move, saying "Americans shouldn’t be required to send the IRS information that it doesn’t need to effectively enforce our tax laws, and the IRS simply does not need tax returns with donor names and addresses to do its job in this area." He also said that it won't make any difference in transparency, that the "same information about tax-exempt organizations that was previously available to the public will continue to be available, while private taxpayer information will be better protected."
However, it also means that wealthy donors of dark money contributions to politically active groups—again, like the NRA—will have one more shield from exposure. Those organizations don't have to disclose contributions to the FEC and now they can keep them secret from the IRS, too. However, and this pretty much exposes just how politically motivated this decision is, traditional charity groups still have to disclose donors. It's just the politically oriented groups that can keep donors secret.
While it "frees labor unions, issue advocacy organizations, veterans groups and other nonprofits that do not receive tax-exempt money from meeting confidential disclosure requirements set in place decades ago," it wasn't the labor unions and veterans groups and Planned Parenthood that were lobbying the Trump administration for this change. It was conservative groups, like the tea party which has been hammering on the IRS since it was supposedly unfairly targeted for scrutiny under the Obama administration (it wasn't) who have been agitating for it.
That's going to make it even easier for Russian money to find its way to the NRA! Which would be just fine with Trump's new Supreme Court nominee, who has no problem at all with foreign money flowing into dark money groups.