NPR video stinger O’Keefe may have trouble getting nonprofit status, paper says

Conservative video muckracker James O’Keefe, who caught NPR execs in an undercover sting last week, is seeking nonprofit status for his Project Veritas, “but it is certain that his application is not clear-cut, tax lawyers say,” according to today’s (March 16) Chronicle of Philanthropy. The main problem: O’Keefe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after he and three others entered the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) last year pretending to be telephone repairmen. O’Keefe later stated that he would do it again, albeit “differently,” the paper notes. Marc Owens, a Washington tax lawyer who formerly oversaw the IRS division that monitors tax-exempt groups, noted: “If he is proposing to do something that is, in fact, illegal, can the IRS believe, with any degree of credibility, what he is saying?”