Read the full story: The Hill
TIGTA’s FOIA practices have come under criticism before. In the fall of last year, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia admonished the agency for its use of FOIA exemptions. Cause of Action, a nonprofit group that has sued TIGTA, announced in December that the agency declined to fork over more than 2,000 documents related to a FOIA request.
Read the full story: Politico
Senate Finance Republicans are demanding all White House communications with the IRS since 2010, curious about whether the White House asked for private taxpayer information as part of the IRS scandal. TIGTA has confirmed that it has investigated whether such information was unlawfully shared, but it will not release the findings of the probes because it says it would infringe on the privacy rights of taxpayers. Conservative group Cause of Action is suing the IRS right now to get this information. This letter shows that Hatch is ready to play hardball with the IRS investigation. Letter here: http://politico.pro/1zaTZU2
Read the full story: Newsmax
Outside groups already have tried to get a look at communications between the White House and the IRS but have been largely unsuccessful, the Times said.
Specifically, Cause of Action, an interest group, has gone to court to try to force the agency’s inspector general to produce documents stemming from its investigation into White House-IRS communications, but the inspector general has refused, saying it would violate the privacy of taxpayers involved.
Read the full story: Washington Times
Outside groups already have tried to get a look at the communications between the White House and the IRS, though they have largely been unsuccessful.
Cause of Action, an interest group, has gone to court to try to compel the IRS‘ inspector general to turn over documents it has stemming from its investigation into White House-IRS communications. The inspector general says it has 2,500 pages of records from its investigation but can’t turn most of them over, saying it would violate the privacy of taxpayers involved.
Read the full story: Forbes
We wouldn’t know anything about this more debilitating scandal except for a lawsuit for transparency against this promised most transparent administration in history. A non-profit group, Cause of Action, began investigating whether the IRS was improperly sharing taxpayer information with the White House in 2012. Cause of Action filed a Freedom of Information Act request for any correspondence between the IRS and White House about tax returns for individuals or businesses. When the IRS refused the request, the group filed a lawsuit.
Having to sue sure doesn’t seem transparent, but it gets worse. There have been a number of allegations of politically motivated IRS leaks. But proving such a thing is difficult, particularly when even the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, TIGTA, errs on the side of keeping taxpayer information confidential. Even if the confidentiality law was broken, the theory goes, it would be breaking it again to reveal the confidences that were revealed to the White House in violation of the law.
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.