Media

Washington D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) today called upon Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) J. Russell George to investigate whether IRS employees violated the law by disclosing more than a million pages of confidential information on tax-exempt groups to the FBI and DOJ’s Public Integrity Section.  CoA Institute also demanded DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz examine whether FBI and DOJ employees violated taxpayer confidentiality laws by inspecting that data.

CoA Institute President and CEO, and former federal judge, Alfred J. Lechner, Jr.: “The intentional disclosure of taxpayer information, especially information about groups that may have been targeted for their political viewpoints, not only violates the law but represents a breach of public trust.  Americans deserve to know how Washington handles their most private information.  Vigilant oversight is necessary to determine whether federal officials improperly accessed IRS records.  This incident may be the largest and most significant breach of taxpayer confidentiality laws by the federal government in U.S. history.”

The call for investigation comes more than three years after CoA Institute first submitted a request for records seeking information relating to the disclosures.  The IRS finally responded to the request on March 9, 2016, showing that, between 2009 and 2012, neither the FBI nor the DOJ submitted the statutorily-required requests for disclosure of sensitive tax return information.  CoA Institute investigators also obtained reports submitted by the U.S. Treasury, which oversees the IRS, to the Joint Committee on Taxation of Congress, which reported only around 2,000 routine tax disclosures from IRS to the DOJ, mainly through U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. However, the IRS actually disclosed more than 1.1 million pages of tax return information to the FBI in October 2010, and the DOJ Public Integrity Section appears to have inspected that information.

To read the full letter, click HERE.

Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code provides a strict rule of confidentiality for tax returns and return information.  Unless a statutory exception applies, government agencies and their employees may not disclose or inspect such information.  Violations can include fines, termination from employment, and imprisonment.

The information in today’s letter will be incorporated into a comprehensive investigative report to be released in the coming weeks by CoA Institute. The report will outline a pattern of abuse by the Obama administration relating to the safeguarding of confidential taxpayer information.

CoA Institute Executive Director Daniel Epstein: “Our staff’s detailed review of thousands of documents over more than fifty months has confirmed the lack of compliance by this administration with statutory requirements designed to safeguard Americans’ most private information.  As our forthcoming report will reveal, the administration’s revealed indifference to compliance has serious implications not only for the politicization of the bureaucracy but for the freedoms of any individual targeted by that bureaucracy’s menacing crosshairs.”

BACKGROUND

In October 2010, the IRS Exempt Organizations segment of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division disclosed more than 1.1 million pages of return information on 21 disks to the FBI and DOJ Public Integrity.  DOJ Public Integrity and the FBI sought this information to investigate potential prohibited political activity allegedly undertaken by these groups.  As part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the IRS and DOJ, CoA Institute obtained records demonstrating that neither the Public Integrity Section nor the FBI ever submitted a request for disclosure of tax return information to the IRS between 2009 and 2012, as required by federal statute.

CoA Institute alerted TIGTA about the possible violation of Section 6103 with respect to the October 2010 disclosure by letter dated July 23, 2015.  But that notice went unanswered.  Similar concerns raised in June 2014 by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also were ignored.  Now, newly-disclosed IRS records confirm these earlier concerns that the IRS, DOJ, and FBI likely broke laws prohibiting the unauthorized disclosure and inspection of taxpayer information.

As described in today’s letter, both the FBI and DOJ Public Integrity failed to file requests for disclosure under the relevant provisions of Section 6103, and the IRS lacked authorization to disclose the 1.1 million pages of tax-exempt entity return information.  Given the pattern of abuse in the current Administration with respect to tax-exempt organizations, independent inquiry into what actually happened is not only appropriate, but necessary.

To access CoA Institute’s June 29, 2016 Letter to TIGTA and the DOJ IG, click here.
A full list of exhibits can be accessed here.
To access CoA Institute’s July 23, 2015 letter to TIGTA, click here.

Washington, DC – Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) today sent three Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documents surrounding recent instances where federal agencies have decided to censor language dealing with Islamic terrorism in order to keep full information from the public.

CoA Institute President and CEO, and former federal judge, Alfred J. Lechner, Jr.: “Political censorship not only chills public access to information, but also undermines public safety. The proposed DHS policy on censorship is counterintuitive and dangerous. The American public has the right to know who is engineering this censorship.”

Orlando shooter 911 transcript redactions:

CoA Institute sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI seeking information on the redaction of the transcripts of a 911 telephone call made by Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, during his horrific rampage. The FBI has not explained when, if ever, it will release the entirety of the transcripts.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch indicated that the Obama administration withheld portions of the transcript linking the killings in Orlando to the Islamic State “to avoid re-victimizing those people that went through this horror,” but failed to provide any explanation as to how releasing information already public knowledge would “re-victimize” survivors.

After broad criticism, the DOJ reversed course and released a partial transcript without redactions. Yet the DOJ is still attempting to obscure the record by withholding critical information. The full transcript has not been released and, while the White House states that the DOJ ordered the redactions, the agency has refused to identify the individuals responsible. The FOIA request by CoA Institute seeks to better understand agency decision-making on this this matter, as well as the release of the full, un-redacted transcript.

Islamic terrorism terminology:

CoA Institute also is investigating a decision by the Obama administration to redact and purge the use of certain terms relating to Islamic terrorism in law enforcement and counterterrorism training materials and in presentations to the public and the media.

Following the June 12, 2016 mass murder of American citizens in Orlando, CIA Director John Brennan testified in an open session of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the status of the United States fight against the Islamic State (ISIL), explaining that “despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach.”

Unfortunately, Director Brennan left unaddressed the significant handicap that he and others in the Obama administration have placed on law enforcement and counterterrorism personnel by censoring and eliminating references to the underlying religious motivations of Islamic terrorists. Starting in 2011, Brennan led an aggressive campaign to purge any critical references to, or even mention of, Islamic ideology, beliefs, and cultural terms from intelligence and law enforcement training materials. In addition, a recent report from the Homeland Security Advisory Council recommends that law enforcement involved in fighting violent extremism “[r]eject religiously-charged terminology and problematic positioning by using plain meaning American English.”  The report specifically calls for eliminating the use of terms such as ‘jihad,’ ‘sharia,’ ‘takfir’ and ‘umma.’

The use of specific, accurate, and even technical terminology in law enforcement is integral to effective counter-terrorism operations and training. CoA Institute accordingly has sent FOIA requests to both the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security seeking information on the Administration’s policies relating to Islamic terrorism terminology.

The full FOIA request for details of the Orlando killer’s 911 call is available HERE
The full FOIA request to CIA is available HERE
The full FOIA request to DHS is available HERE

Washington, DC – Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) today sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve Linick following confirmation that a yet-to-be named staffer deleted approximately eight minutes from the video record of the Department’s December 2, 2013 press briefing.

“Although the video has now been restored, this deletion raises numerous questions about the State Department commitment to transparency and honest dealing with the American public,” the letter states. “It also has possible criminal implications. It is a federal crime to unlawfully remove, destroy, or mutilate a federal record. The State Department has also revealed that this unnamed staffer did not act alone but that she received a phone call and was told to alter the record.”

To date, there is no evidence that federal authorities have begun any criminal investigation of State Department staff conduct under 18 U.S.C. § 2071 regarding this matter. Moreover, the State Department has stated it would no longer investigate this matter, even with considerable gaps in the information still outstanding.

The letter states: “As the head of the State Department and its Office of Inspector General, respectively, you each have an obligation to refer matters to the Attorney General whenever there is a reason to believe that a violation of federal criminal law has occurred.”

Cause of Action Institute is seeking more information to understand whether this incident could include criminal charges for aiding and abetting or conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 371.

The letter requests that Sec. Kerry and the IG immediately refer and report the relevant staff to the Attorney General for possible criminal violations of this statute arising from their alteration of the video record of the Department’s December 2, 2013 press briefing.

Washington, DC – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today ruled in favor of Rhea Lana Riner and her children’s clothing consignment business in her lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Labor. Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) represents Rhea Lana, Inc. The ruling overturns the district court’s dismissal of her complaint and allows the case to proceed.

Rhea Lana: “I am grateful that the Court of Appeals is allowing my case to go forward. The Labor Department’s crusade to classify volunteers as employees has put my business and livelihood in jeopardy. I look forward to presenting my case before the district court in the hopes of being able to run my business without the constant threat of civil penalties from the federal government.”

Rhea Lana founded her clothing consignment company in her living room more than a decade ago. Since the company’s humble beginnings, Rhea Lana, Inc. has expanded as a franchise with 80 locations across 24 states. However, in 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor conducted an audit and sent Rhea Lana a letter claiming that her company was in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act regarding minimum wages and overtime pay.  The government claimed that volunteers who help at the consignment events where their goods are on sale must be classified as “employees.”

Rhea Lana took the Department of Labor to court, but the complaint was dismissed for lack of a reviewable agency action.  On appeal, however, the Court of Appeals held that the government’s letter to Rhea Lana is subject to immediate judicial review. The ruling states:

“We conclude that the Department’s letter to Rhea Lana is final agency action because it is more than mere agency advice. By notifying Rhea Lana that the company was in violation of its wage-and-hour obligations, the letter rendered knowing any infraction in the face of such notice, and made Rhea Lana susceptible to willfulness penalties that would not otherwise apply. The letter thus transmitted legally operative information with a ‘legal consequence’ sufficient to render the letter final. We therefore reverse the district court’s dismissal.”

CoA Institute President & CEO, and former federal judge, Alfred J. Lechner, Jr.: “We are gratified by the decision of the Court of Appeals.  People who receive agency letters like the one the Department of Labor sent Rhea Lana should be able to go to court to protect their rights.  The outcome of this case will set an important precedent about the right to judicial review, the scope of the government’s control over U.S. commerce, and whether individuals are free to volunteer their time for their own benefit. We believe that the Department of Labor overstepped its authority in this case and look forward to Rhea Lana’s day in court.”

The case now returns to the district court, where Rhea Lana will show why volunteers should be free to use their time to ensure the success of consignment events.

The Court of Appeals decision relied on the United States Supreme Court’s decision this week in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., which involved a similar question of judicial review.  CoA Institute filed an amicus brief in that case in support of the parties seeking review, who prevailed in the Court.