Confidential tax records of certain political candidates and campaign donors were “improperly scrutized” according to the Treasury Department. The Department of Justice has refused to prosecute the cases.
J. Russell George, the Treasury Department’s inspector general, privately told Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that his investigators are “probing” two allegations that the IRS “targeted for audit candidates for public office.”
George told Grassley that:
a review turned up four cases since 2006 in which unidentified government officials took part in “unauthorized access or disclosure of tax records of political donors or candidates,” including one case he described as “willful.”
Grassley has asked the DOJ why they have declined to prosecute the cases. The investigation did not reveal the names or political parties whose tax records were affected, as tax records are supposed to be confidential.
In a letter July 3, Mr. George told Mr. Grassley that, of the four instances in which tax records were improperly accessed, three cases were determined to be “inadvertent.”
“In the fourth case, we presented evidence of a willful unauthorized access to the Department of Justice, but the case was declined for prosecution,” Mr. George wrote.
Of the three cases that the inspector general called “inadvertent” disclosures, Mr. George said his office referred one to Justice with a recommendation that no prosecution be brought. He said Justice officials agreed with his office’s assessment.
A spokesman for thr DOJ did not respond to the Washington Times‘ request for a comment on Monday. Senator Grassley has given Attorney General Holder until July 26 to answer his questions on the matter.