WASHINGTON — The nation's largest civil rights group is refusing to turn over documents for an Internal Revenue Service investigation into allegedly improper political activity, claiming the probe is politically motivated.

In a letter sent to the IRS Friday, the NAACP cited what it contends is evidence that the agency launched the audit before the November election because of political pressure. The group provided a copy of the letter to USA TODAY.

IRS Commissioner Mark Everson wrote to two congressional Democrats in November, saying that his agency began investigating several dozen nonprofit groups based in part on complaints from two members of Congress, whom he did not identify. The IRS is prohibited by law from identifying the subjects of audits.

The IRS notified the NAACP of the audit on Oct. 8. The IRS told the group that its tax-exempt status was in jeopardy because its chairman, Julian Bond, had attacked President Bush in a speech to the group's national convention in July. The NAACP received a summons on Jan. 14 for information related to the speech, but in Friday's letter it declined to comply.

"It appears that political pressure, rather than any sound legal authority, motivated the Service" to open the audit, says the letter from NAACP lawyers Marcus Owens and Lloyd Mayer. Owens is the former head of the IRS office that oversees tax-exempt organizations.

The IRS denies any partisan motive for the probe, which targets "a wide array of groups across the political and ideological spectrum," Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols said. The IRS can ask a court to enforce the summons.

Tax law bars charities organized under section 501(c)(3), such as the NAACP, from taking sides in political campaigns. The law restricts such groups because donations to them are tax-deductible for the donor and they are in effect subsidized by the government.

Everson said in a letter to Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, that charitable groups must avoid "reasonably overt communication ... that the organization supports or opposes a particular candidate."

Owens, the NAACP attorney, said the IRS appears to be using a more expansive definition of political activity than it has in the past. "This is highly questionable," he said, noting the "interesting alacrity with which the IRS jumped into this."

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