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A former California police chief charged with joining anti-government extremists in rioting at the U.S. Capitol told the IRS last year that he created a charity called the American Phoenix Project to defend human rights and civil and educate the public about vaccines.
Instead, Alan Hostetter used his nonprofit nonprofit as a platform to oppose restrictions on the Covid-19 lockdown, protesting that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and advocates for violence against political opponent, according to an eight-count indictment secured by the United States Department of Justice. He has already been charged with conspiracy to stop Joe Bidens ’presidential certification, but Hostetter may also be in violation of IRS policies governing nonprofits that are tax -free, possibly compounding his serious legal issues.
According to the Orange County Register, he headed the La Habra Police Department for eight months before retiring in 2010.
The IRS prohibits charities like Hostetter from participating in any campaign activity for or against political candidates. In his May 2020 application to the IRS for tax -free status, Hostetter wrote that the American Phoenix Project would not directly or indirectly participate in political campaigns.
However, when the American Phoenix Project hosted the Stop the Steal rally in Huntington Beach, California, in December, Hostetter spoke in which he called for a reckoning and said Trump should be sworn in for a second term.
There should be long prison terms, while enforcement is the fair punishment for the ringleaders of this coup, Hostetter said, according to his June 9 indictment.
As of Wednesday, the IRS listed the American Phoenix Project as a tax -free organization. It is also registered with California regulators to operate as a charity.
Hostetters ’lawyer, Bilal Essayli, accused Justice Department prosecutors of pushing the false narrative by including allegations about his clients’ charitable use. Hostettler is not charged with making any politically motivated threats or nonprofit misuse, he said.
They threw out really inflammatory rhetoric that they didn’t have to prove in court, Essayli said.
But a tax expert who reviewed the accusation said it appears to connect American Phoenix Project’s use of subsidized taxpayers, along with messages he posted on nonprofits Instagram accounts, to crimes related to Jan. 6 where he is charged.
I think it’s fair to say and fair intent to say that we don’t want taxpayer money to fund illegality, added Samuel Brunson, a professor of tax law at Loyola University in Chicago.
An IRS spokesman said privacy laws prevent the agency from commenting on individual organizations. A spokesman for the California Attorney’s office Rob Bonta would not say whether the Charities Trusts Section has received or is investigating or any complaints about the American Phoenix Project.
To protect its integrity, we will not discuss potential or ongoing investigations, the spokesperson wrote in an email.
The FBI has linked dozens of people charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol to right-wing extremist groups. The Hostetters organization may be just one of a bunch authorized by the federal government to accept tax -deductible donations.
And the American Phoenix Project may not be the only tax -free group that has challenged election results in 2020: The Republican Defense, developed by former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, describes itself as a no commercial but not on the IRS list of tax -free organizations
Hostetter, 56, of San Clemente, was arrested June 10, along with five other men from California on charges they conspired to stop Congress from proving Biden’s election victory. The indictment links four of his comrades with the accused to Three Percent, a wing of the militia movement.
Another co -defendant, Russell Taylor, joined the board of directors for the American Phoenix Project last year, according to prosecutors. On the eve of the riot at the Capitol, Taylor spoke at a pro-Trump rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as part of a panel of American Phoenix Project speakers, the indictment said.
We are free Americans and on these streets, we will fight and bleed before we allow our freedom to be taken away from us, Taylor said, according to the accusation.
In a video posted on his organization’s YouTube channel less than a month after the election, Hostetter expressed his belief that votes for Trump had been shifted to Biden and some people at the highest level should make an example of with an implementation or two. or three, the complaint said.
Three days before the riot, Hostetter posted a message on the American Phoenix Projects Instagram account about an upcoming match. “
Things will come to a head in the US over the next few days. Stay tuned! he wrote.
After the riot, Hostetter posted a photo on both the account of himself and Taylor with the rioters in the background. He called it the 2021 version of 1776, the accusation said.
That war lasted 8 years. We are just getting started, he wrote.
Brunson said it would be an “obvious and easy decision” for the IRS to withdraw the American Phoenix Project’s tax return if it finds it used the property for illegal purposes. Whether the group violated the IRS ban on political campaigning is a closer call to Brunson’s judgment because the accusation accused Hostetter of using it to support Trump after he lost the election.
At some point, Trump stopped being a candidate for office, Brunson said. Based on the complaint, claiming they were acting illegally is an easier case. It won’t be too controversial. It won’t be too difficult.
Essayli accused prosecutors in the trial to punish Hostetter for expressing his strong political views with free speech protected by the First Amendment.
They had a narrative, a public rhetoric, and then what they actually brought to court was really different, the defense attorney said.
In reports filed with the IRS and the California attorney general’s office, the American Phoenix Project said it received $ 10,317 in contributions and spent a total of $ 53,342 in 2020. This includes the $ 50,000 it said was spent on a lawsuit. challenge to Governor Gavin Newsom’s challenge Covid -19 restrictions.
More than 480 people are charged with federal crimes related to the riots. While the case against Hostetter and his co -defendants is still in its infancy, federal prosecutors have begun securing a plea deal with some of the troublemakers. Authorities have brought similar cases of conspiracy against members and associates of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups.
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