Thursday, April 10, 2014

Preventing scrutiny from turning his way

Issa writes to Cummings,
“Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, records of communication between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicate otherwise,” Issa wrote to Cummings on Wednesday. ”As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.”

The IRS officials who handled Cummings’ long-concealed request didn’t inform the Oversight Committee about it, either. How cozy!

Issa added that the “timeline and pattern of inquiries raises concerns that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with your staff.” One of the big unanswered questions is whether any confidential tax information, protected by federal law, was disclosed to Cummings and his staff by the IRS officials who responded to their request. Such information was unquestionably pulled by the IRS people and passed between them by email; we need to know if any of it was forwarded to Cummings staffers. If so, that’s a federal crime, punishable by fines and jail time. The possibility of such illegal disclosure was cited as one of the reasons the House Ways and Means Committee voted yesterday to recommend a Justice Department investigation of former Tax Exempt Organizations director Lois Lerner.

Update: Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote issued a statement after the Cummings revelations:

Elijah Cummings has blocked the IRS abuse investigation all along. We now see clearly that two branches of government have colluded to target and silence private citizens.

America has come to a tipping point. No more lies. No more cover-ups. No more collusion. Enough is enough. Finally, we have a chance for the rule of law to be re-established, thanks to the bold efforts of Chairman Issa and Rep. Jordan.

We filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Cummings in February. Today we’re amending that filing to include this latest revelation. As I have said in my testimony before Congress; I will not retreat, I will not surrender, I will not be intimidated. I will not ask Rep. Cummings, Lois Lerner, Barack Obama, or anyone else, for permission to exercise my constitutional rights.

Read more here.

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