IRS Auditing Gingrich Class, School Officials Say

The Internal Revenue Service is conducting an audit of the college course House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) taught for two years, officials at two Georgia colleges confirmed Tuesday.

The IRS division that audits tax-exempt organizations has contacted the Kennesaw State University Foundation at Kennesaw State University and Reinhardt College.

“They said the focus would be an analysis of the course,” said Marsha White, spokeswoman at Reinhardt. Gingrich gave “Renewing American Civilization” lectures at Reinhardt, a private college, in 1994 and 1995. He began the course at Kennesaw in fall 1993.

The audit is separate from a House Ethics Committee investigation of Gingrich’s course, but there is a common thread: Whether the course, which was financed by tax-deductible donations, met IRS rules for tax-exempt activities.

James M. Cole, an outside counsel hired by the committee, last month submitted a still-secret preliminary report on his investigation of Gingrich’s course.

He was asked to determine whether the speaker’s activities in relation to the course violated federal tax law, or whether any foundation involved with the course violated its tax-exempt status with Gingrich’s knowledge.

Gingrich has denied repeatedly that the course ran afoul of IRS or House rules.

Gingrich’s course was financed by tax-exempt donations that were sent to the Kennesaw foundation and the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank run by Gingrich’s allies.

Employees who worked for Gingrich’s political action committee, GOPAC, had switched over to the foundations and solicited money for the course.

Ethics complaints filed by a Gingrich rival, former Rep. Ben Jones (D-Ga.), contended that the course was not legitimately tax-exempt but a GOPAC political activity designed to recruit Republican activists.