Treasury IG: The IRS Improperly Snopped into the Confidential Records of Four Candidates and Donors Since 2006

That sounds low to me, but I'll take it as some momentum to get the investigation and prosecution ball rolling again.

A government watchdog has found for the first time that confidential tax records of several political candidates and campaign donors were improperly scrutinized by government officials, but the Justice Department has declined to prosecute any of the cases.

Its investigators also are probing two allegations that the Internal Revenue Service “targeted for audit candidates for public office,” the Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, J. Russell George, has privately told Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Don't worry, though. I'm sure the Moses of Our Age, the Lawgiver, is already prosecuting those who abused their position to access confidential candidate information and punish citizens with audits.

Mr. Grassley has asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to explain why the Justice Department chose not to prosecute any of the cases.

Oh, right, Holder's a criminal. I forgot.

...

“The Justice Department should answer completely and not hide behind taxpayer confidentiality laws to avoid accountability for its decision not to prosecute a violation of taxpayer confidentiality laws,” Mr. Grassley told The Times. “With the IRS on the hot seat over targeting certain political groups, it’s particularly troubling to learn about ‘willful unauthorized access’ of tax records involving individuals who were candidates for office or political donors. The public needs to know whether the decision not to prosecute these violations was politically motivated and whether the individuals responsible were held accountable in any other way.”

It's astonishing that agents of the government can launch attacks on citizens willy-nilly but when the citizens begin demanding answers, we start hearing about "confidentiality laws" and such.

posted by Ace at 02:57 PM

| Access Comments