The IRS’ improper disclosure of taxpayer information to the White House was extensively investigated, according to thousands of documents the Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently sitting on and could release within the next two weeks.
The Daily Caller first reported that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner and White House policy adviser Jeanne Lambrew exchanged confidential taxpayer information about a conservative group that was suing to stop Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate in 2012. Now, with 30,000 Lerner emails set to be turned over to Congress, new information is surfacing about the White House-IRS information pipeline.
The legal advocacy firm Cause of Action sued the Treasury Department’s inspector general for information about further IRS coordination with the White House. The long-stonewalled lawsuit has finally borne fruit.
“[T]he Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) informed Cause of Action that there exist nearly 2,500 potentially responsive documents relating to investigations of improper disclosures of confidential taxpayer information by the IRS to the White House,” Cause of Action stated.
The Department of Justice is trying to delay the release of the documents for another two weeks.
“It needs the additional two weeks to deal with the last 500 pages to determine if they are responsive and make any necessary withholdings. We would therefore like to ask the court to permit the agency to issue a response (including production) on December 1 as to any documents it has completed processing by that date, and do the same as to the remaining documents by December 15,” said DOJ lawyer Yonatan Gelblum in an email to Cause of Action.
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