Nonaka was the executive director of the Hawaii Republican Party from 2010 to 2011 and has helped co-chair other political campaigns, including Charles Djou’s successful bid for Congress in 2010. Before that, he joined the Marines out of high school and traveled with his unit to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Nonaka’s unit was among the first American forces to cross the Kuwait/Iraq border and enter Baghdad later in the campaign.
When Mitch Steele, a tax-exempt organizations specialist for the IRS, sent more than a dozen pages of questions and additional forms to the Maui Tea Party on Jan. 26, 2012, in response to an application for 501(c)(4) status, the sixth question was about Nonaka.
“Provide details regarding your relationship with Dylan Nonaka. Provide copies of the training material used by Dylan Nonaka,” the IRS letter demanded.
Similar questions about the Maui Tea Party’s relationship with the Virginia-based Leadership Institute proceeded questions about Nonaka.
Nonaka has no tie to the Maui Tea Party, but flew to the island for a seminar where he volunteered at a grassroots activist training run by a friend at the Leadership Institute. The Maui Tea Party mentioned the event in one of its newsletters, but was not involved in the meeting.
“The worst thing our government can do is use its taxing authority to go after individuals that they don’t agree with politically,” Nonaka said.
Read the rest of the article to find out the dirty tricks used by the IRS to probe the TEA party looking for ties to Nonaka. I'm hoping this will wake up a few of our sleepy islanders when they realize the crime against him for doing nothing at all.
