Feds are refusing to release thousands of documents private IRS tax documents they shared with the White House. A non-profit IRS watch dog group called Cause of Action are suing the IRS for the information. The White House has violated our privacy rights to squeeze political oppositions before an election.
Cause of Action filed a Freedom of Information Act against the IRS in 2012 asking the IRS turn over any private information related to the correspondence between the IRS and the White House about the requests on businesses and individuals. When the suit was filed, the IRS claimed they could not release the documents based on the restraints of the Internal Revenue code. However, a judge ruled the IRS must comply with the FOIA request.
On Tuesday the TIGTA (Treasury Inspector of General Tax Information) wrote a letter to the Cause of Action Group, saying it can not release of the 2.043 tax documents to the group due to it violates the tax code.
“These pages consist of return information protected by 26 U.S.C. § 6103 and may not be disclosed absent an express statutory exception,” the letter said. “Because no such exception exists here, we are withholding those.”
By sending the letter to the Cause of Action Group, the TIGTA is essentially admitting the documents do in fact exist and the White House broken our privacy rights by requesting and receiving private tax information about businesses and individuals.
Dan Epstein, a spokesman for the Cause of Action group says,:
If there is any evidence that the White House requested (unauthorized taxpayer information), then people in the White House are going to be implicated,”
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