Political News

Comstock Images/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- What is the next step for the tea party groups who feel they were unfairly scrutinized by the Internal Revenue Service?  For many of them, it may be lawsuits against the agency.

Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, said the group will be bringing a lawsuit on behalf of many of those groups next week.

"It's the logical next step," he said.

"The admission and apology by the IRS that the criteria used [in tea party applications] was not correct and inappropriate" is grounds for a suit, Sekulow said in an interview with ABC News, because groups he represents are "still getting letters requesting information" and he believes "if we don't file suit we won't bring an end to this."

ACLJ represents 27 tea party organizations that feel they were unfairly targeted by the IRS.  Ten of the groups ACLJ represents still have pending applications to get tax-exempt status, while 15 did receive tax-exempt status.

ACLJ is preparing a lawsuit against the Department of Treasury and the IRS on behalf of at least 17 of those groups, Sekulow said -- and more groups, possibly even potential new clients beyond the 27 the ACLJ currently represents, could be added.

Sekulow said he plans on filing the suit this week.

"We are going to focus on a lack of standards and the treatment they were given and the wrong criteria utilized, much of what was in the IG report," Sekulow said.

Other government officials might be added to the suit, he said, including IRS agents named in the documents and department heads.

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Scott Olson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- As the chair of the Tea Party Caucus, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is railing against the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party groups, saying: “clearly, this had political implications…that would benefit President Obama.”

“Over and over and over, the common thread is the Obama administration was too willing to use the government to advance their agenda, their political agenda,” Bachmann tells ABC News.

Bachmann says individuals in the Tea Party have been voicing concerns to her about getting “ridiculous questions” from the IRS for quite some time and asserts that other groups, in addition to the Tea Party, were also targeted.

“The IRS couldn't do enough to part the waters to make sure that every progressive, left-wing leaning organization got their new tax-exempt status,” she says.  “So they were able to get a favorable tax treatment, while Christians, pro-Israel, conservative, Tea Partiers, pro-growth, pro-job, pro-business, they were hurt.”

The congresswoman says the recent controversy highlights her broader concerns that the IRS may gain access to people’s medical information under the Affordable Care Act.

“When people realize that their most personal, sensitive, intimate, private healthcare information is in the hands of the IRS that's been willing to use people's tax information against political opponents of this administration, then people have pause and they pull back in horror,” Bachmann says.

The Obama administration has refuted the claim that the IRS will handle people’s medical records, but Bachmann is not convinced.  The long-time critic of the president’s health care plan led a vote in the House last week calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

“Well the ball is in Harry Reid's court now, because the House of Representatives has done its part,” Bachmann says of the measure that passed the House but is not expected to gain traction in the Senate.

While the former presidential candidate says she isn’t thinking about running for president again, she isn’t exactly ruling it out either, saying: “you never know.”

“My calculus never has been about politics,” Bachmann says.  “It’s really about the issues.  And I will tell you, the reason why I ran for president is because I knew I had the backbone and the spine to repeal Obamacare.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio