Testimony: IRS Leaked Info About Donors to Liberal Groups

On Tuesday, John C. Eastman, the National Organization for Marriage’s Chairman of the Board, accused the IRS of illegally leaking information about the organization’s donors to liberal organizations for political purposes. 

In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, he said the IRS leaked the information to the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-gay rights group. He noted the head of the HRC was a co-chair of the Obama campaign. 

Eastman said NOM is a 501(c)(4) organization and portions of NOM’s “Form 990,” which contains the names and addresses of NOM’s major donors are not public.”

He said that on March 30, 2012, NOM became aware that the Human Rights Campaign, the pro-gay rights group, obtained confidential information of its donors and posted the information without redacting the names. That information later appeared on websites like the Huffington Post.

NOM discovered another document with redactions that had been posted. A computer analysis, after removing the document’s redaction layer, discovered the document had “originated from within the IRS itself.”  He said the group found the header of each page read: “THIS IS A COPY OF A LIVE RETURN FROM SMIPS. OFFICIAL USE ONLY.” And that was proof that the leak originated from the IRS.

He said this “unauthorized public disclosure” was “a violation of federal law” and a “serious felony.”

Eastman said the group asked the Department of Justice and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TITGA) to investigate. He noted that a year after making the request, the group still has not received any information.

He said his organization was initially asked whether someone from NOM had leaked the documents, and the organization notified TITGA that the group could not have put the identifying markings that were on the leaked documents.