Ted Poe: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. This is about real people. One of those is my friend and constituent down in…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. This is about real people. One of those is my friend and constituent down in Houston, Texas, by the name of Catherine Engelbrecht. She is the founder of True the Vote and King Street Patriots in Houston, Texas, and she became intimidated and harassed by our very own government, all because she dared to speak her mind and engage in politics, a right that she is guaranteed under the Constitution. {time} 1745 It all began when Catherine Engelbrecht, a businesswoman, applied for nonprofit status in 2010 for True the Vote, which is a voter integrity group, and King Street Patriots; and so began the tidal wave of government inquiries and harassment. She said it best in her testimony before Congress: We applied for nonprofit status in 2010. Since then, the IRS has run us through a gauntlet of analysts and hundreds of questions over and over and over again. They've requested to see each and every tweet I've ever tweeted and each and every Facebook post I've ever posted. They've asked to know every place I've ever spoken since our inception, who was in the audience, and everywhere I intend to speak in the future. This is our government--our government oppressing someone--at its worst. There is even more. We have learned that the IRS even asked her group and others for their donor lists. This level of detail goes well beyond the business of the IRS. It didn't stop there.…”