close X
01/13/2015

Cause of Action Challenges FTC in Court for Obstructing Transparency

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Geoff Holtzman, 703-405-3511, geoff.holtzman@causeofaction.org

Cause of Action Challenges FTC in Court for Obstructing Transparency

Agency Threatens the Integrity of FOIA, Conduct Part of a Larger Pattern

WASHINGTON – Cause of Action (CoA), a government oversight group, today will argue before the United States Circuit Court for the District of Columbia that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) improperly denied CoA’s request to be treated as a news media organization and for fee waivers under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and the Daily Caller News Foundation, among others, filed a “friend of court” brief in support of CoA.

Cause of Action’s Executive Director Dan Epstein said: “This Administration pledged openness and transparency, yet FTC has done the reverse. President Obama has said regarding FOIA that ‘democracy requires accountability and accountability requires transparency.’ But by obstructing FOIA disclosure and by playing games with media status and fee waivers to reward friends and to punish critics, FTC has crippled transparency and obstructed accountability.”

“FTC’s desire to chill criticism appears to explain what occurred here. Upholding FTC’s ‘weaponization’ of FOIA will empower agencies to selectively define what is and isn’t ‘media’, thereby blocking transparency and significantly reducing the federal government’s accountability to all Americans.”

CoA filed three separate FOIA requests between 2011 and 2012 for information on FTC regulation of social media authors and bloggers. CoA advised FTC this information was for an article and investigative report because blogger regulations “justify close scrutiny.” FTC denied CoA information access, news media requestor status and fee waivers. At the same time, FTC granted fee waivers to the AFL-CIO, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Marin Institute. According to Mr. Epstein, “FTC’s desire to chill criticism appears to explain what occurred here.”

FTC’s conduct reflects a larger pattern of government games with FOIA. For example, in 2009, the White House Counsel required all government agencies to submit FOIA disclosures involving “White House equities” for political pre-review. In 2013, a study by the Competitive Enterprise Institute revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency granted fee waivers to politically favored groups in 75 out of 82 cases, but denied 14 of 15 requests for fee waivers by Agency critics during the same period of time. In 2014, AP’s Washington Bureau Chief said FOIA “is under siege” and that “Requests are now routinely forwarded to political appointees.”

To learn more about Cause of Action’s work on this case, please click here.

WHAT: Arguments in Cause of Action v. Federal Trade Commission

WHERE: United States Circuit Court for the District of Columbia

WHEN: TODAY, January 13, 2015 at 9:30 am 

To schedule an interview with Cause of Action’s Executive Director Dan Epstein, contact Geoff Holtzman at geoff.holtzman@causeofaction.org

###

Press Release Learn More
01/6/2015

Cause of Action Statement on Announcement of DOJ IG Michael Horowitz as Chairman of CIGIE

Cause of Action released the following statement today following the announcement of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz as Chairman of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency:

Cause of Action congratulates Michael Horowitz on his chairmanship of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE). Chairman Horowitz brings the gravitas and investigative prowess necessary to bring true accountability to the executive branch, as he has demonstrated in his work as the Inspector General for the Department of Justice on matters ranging from Fast and Furious to nepotism in the nation’s immigration courts. In the past, CIGIE has failed in its oversight of such recent matters as the GSA spending scandal and the investigation of former DHS IG Charles Edwards, making the choice of Horowitz a welcome change and an encouraging sign for Americans concerned about government accountability. Cause of Action looks forward to the leadership Chairman Horowitz will provide and anticipates that CIGIE will help pave the way for more empowered and accountable Inspectors General to shine a light on what is happening in our federal agencies.

Press Release Learn More
01/5/2015

Cause of Action Signs Letter of Support for Amending Rule on Judiciary Committee Jurisdiction

Cause of Action joined ten organizations in support of the proposed amendment to the Rules of the House of Representatives that would clarify the jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary by adding “criminalization” to the Committee’s legislative jurisdiction.

Bipartisan Support for Amending Rule on Judiciary Committee Jurisdiction by Cause of Action

Press Release Learn More
12/19/2014

Video: Dan Epstein Talks IRS Targeting on One America News Network

News Video Learn More
12/16/2014

The IRS Strikes Back: Cause of Action Prepares for Its Next Battle on White House Access to Tax Information

Cause of Action’s battle continues against the IRS’s chief auditor (TIGTA) to publicize unauthorized disclosures to the White House.  Yesterday, TIGTA released 31 pages, 27 of which are already publicly available. In sum, TIGTA has produced only about one percent of the documents responsive to CoA’s request despite the court’s ruling mandating disclosure.

The records released show that TIGTA was concerned about inquiries from “external stakeholders,” including the White House and the Department of the Treasury, following media reports that TIGTA had opened an investigation into whether Koch Industries’ tax information was illegally disclosed to Austan Goolsbee.  See the full production here.

After Cause of Action’s 2012 public records (FOIA) request concerning investigations into unauthorized disclosures of taxpayer information to the White House, TIGTA refused to confirm the existence of any records, so we took them to court. The Court ruled in CoA’s favor in September and TIGTA claimed that it was reviewing 2509 pages of documents to comply with a court order.  On December 1, 2014, TIGTA indicated that after review, 2043 pages were responsive to Cause of Action’s request, but it refused to produce actual records. TIGTA claimed the records were protected under Section 6103, a provision in the tax code requiring the confidentiality of tax returns or return information relating to a taxpayer’s actual or potential tax liability.

The IRS’s auditor (TIGTA) indicated that it would address the remaining 466 pages within two weeks.  On December 15, 2014, TIGTA withheld 435 pages and released 27 pages in full and 4 pages in part, again citing Section 6103 as the basis for protecting nearly all of the records.  In other words: the records showing White House and IRS employees may have violated Americans’ privacy is being protected under . . . privacy laws.

Looking Ahead:

CoA will file a motion claiming TIGTA’s failure to produce all responsive documents is in violation of the law.  The Court has scheduled a briefing schedule to begin on January 30, 2015.  In the meantime, CoA will aggressively file additional FOIA requests to determine the extent of the White House’s review of taxpayer information, even outside of the context of Section 6103.   Stay tuned.

Press Release Learn More
12/15/2014

Wall Street Journal: Congress Can Pry Open a Clammed-Up IRS

Read the full story: Wall Street Journal

In March 2012 the conservative legal group Cause of Action filed a Freedom of Information request, asking the IRS for documents, including emails showing any disclosures of confidential taxpayer information to the White House. Predictably, the IRS and Treasury stonewalled the request. After the normal administrative requests and appeals failed, Cause of Action launched a federal suit. They wanted all the documents and any correspondence related to the IRS’s refusal to hand them over. The IRS responded that it was exempt from such disclosures and that releasing the files would impede its own internal investigation.

 

In September Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled decisively against the administration. The judge, an Obama appointee, said the plaintiff is entitled to see any relevant documents and ordered the Treasury to search for them. The office of the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, which oversees the IRS, announced in late November that it had found some 2,500 relevant documents. It said it would produce them by mid-December.

News Learn More
12/12/2014

National Review: A Conservative Nonprofit Corners the IRS

Read the full story: National Review

The Internal Revenue Service might be done in by a group of the type it has been accused of targeting, and the agency seems to know it has been tripped up.

 

Several congressional committees have tried their hand at investigating the IRS, but Cause of Action (CoA), a government watchdog group, may be the ones to put the agency in a corner. IRS and Department of Justice officials are looking for ways to get the group off their tail.

 

“We’ve set up a trap for them,” CoA president Dan Epstein tells National Review Online. “We’re literally outsmarting them.”

 

For more than a year, CoA has focused on the IRS’s inconsistent application of the Internal Revenue Code’s rule 6103, which states that private taxpayer information must be kept confidential. Through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) applications, CoA methodically requested documents pertinent to the White House’s potential unlawful acquisition of such information. The IRS appears to have moved to stonewall CoA, which has not yet received the documents it requested, and Epstein says that the delays amount to the IRS’s acknowledgment to at least some wrongdoing.

News Learn More