March 29, 2024

Senate GOP demands Obama turn over all communications with IRS

Senate GOP demands Obama turn over all communications with IRSPresident Barack Obama speaks at the Libya Contact Group Meeting at the UN Building, Tuesday, Sept., 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) **FILE** more >

Senate Republicans asked President Obama Thursday to turn over all communications he and his aides have had with the IRS since 2010, hoping to find out whether the tax agency shared private taxpayer information with political operatives at the White House.

The request, made in a letter obtained by The Washington Times, is signed by new Finance Chairman Orrin G. Hatch and all 13 other Republicans on the committee, and is addressed specifically to Mr. Obama, saying they want to see if his employees broke the law by acquiring or sharing private information.

“We have an obligation to conduct oversight of the federal government’s administration of our tax laws,” the lawmakers wrote. “As part of this oversight, we are seeking to determine the degree to and manner in which the Internal Revenue Service shares taxpayer information with the Executive Office of the President.”

The Republicans said they tried to get the information from the IRS but it has been “unable to provide a full accounting of its employees’ communications with the White House.” The GOP senators gave the president a Feb. 20 deadline.

Neither the White House nor the IRS offered comment on the letter Thursday afternoon.

The IRS is strictly prohibited from sharing confidential taxpayer information with outsides, though several high-profile conservative figures have said they believe their information was improperly accessed or shared.

In one instance, the IRS agreed to pay $50,000 to the National Organization for Marriage to settle claims after the agency said an employee made a mistake in releasing the group’s donor information to a citizen who requested it. The information was passed to a gay-rights group that posted the donors’ names online. A federal judge ruled the disclosure was an accident.

House Republicans have launched several investigations of the IRS in the wake of the agency’s 2013 admission that it improperly targeted tea party groups for special scrutiny, blocking approval of their applications for tax-exempt status.

The Senate, controlled by Democrats, had been slower in its investigation. But with Republicans now in control, Thursday’s letter suggests the Senate probe into IRS treatment of taxpayers could pick up.

Outside groups have already 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’s inspector general to turn over documents it has stemming from its investigation into White HouseIRS communications. The inspector general says it has 2,500 documents from its investigation, but said it couldn’t turn most of them over, saying it would violate the privacy of taxpayers involved.

It’s unclear whether those 2,500 documents would show any evidence of White House meddling.

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