Not a Smidgen of Corruption: IRS Pays $50,000 in Damages to Anti-Same-Sex Marriage Group, National Organization for Marriage, for Illegally Leaking Their Confidential Donor Lists to Pro-Same-Sex Marriage Group, Human Rights Campaign

Sometimes, as Lois Lerner says, shit just happens.

Two years after activists for same-sex marriage obtained the confidential tax return and donor list of a national group opposed to redefining marriage, the Internal Revenue Service has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to settle the resulting lawsuit.

The Daily Signal has learned that, under a consent judgment today, the IRS agreed to pay $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for Marriage as a result of the unlawful release of the confidential information to a gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, that is NOM's chief political rival.

"Congress made the disclosure of confidential tax return information a serious matter for a reason," NOM Chairman John D. Eastman told The Daily Signal....

In February 2012, the Human Rights Campaign posted on its web site NOM’s 2008 tax return and the names and contact information of the marriage group's major donors, including soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney....

HRC's president at the time, Joe Solmonese, was tapped that same month as a national co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

A gay rights activist named Matthew Meisel apparently delivered the leaked tax forms to HRC. He wrote in a discovered email that he had a "conduit" who passed him the information. However, when asked about this under oath, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination (sound familiar?), and also refused to say who his "conduit" was.

NOM is demanding that Eric Holder grant Meisel immunity so that he can be compelled to reveal the name of his "conduit."

For reasons that I couldn't even guess at, Eric Holder is refusing to take the steps necessary to find the actual lawbreaking parties at the IRS.

Impeach the IRS Officials? Andy McCarthy urges the House to impeach those they suspect of wrongdoing, so that they may use the investigatory powers of impeachment to dig at the truth.

posted by Ace at 04:45 PM

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