Feds Try to Withhold Evidence of White House Crimes

Feds balk at releasing docs showing IRS sharing tax returns with White House

Less than a week after ’fessing up that it found some 2,500 documents potentially showing that the IRS shared taxpayer returns with the White House, the Obama administration has reversed course and won’t release the trove to a group suing for access.

In an abrupt decision, the Treasury inspector general’s office said that the documents are covered by privacy and disclosure laws and can’t be provided to Cause of Action, despite a promise last week to hand over some 2,500.
. . .
“All of the 2,043 pages of documents we have determined to be responsive were collected by the Secretary of the Treasury with respect to the determination of possible liability under Title 26 of the United States Code. These pages consist of return information protected by 26 U.S.C. § 6103 and may not be disclosed absent an express statutory exception,” said the office in a letter dated Dec. 1.
. . .
Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, said Treasury was using “sophisticated” lawyering to weasel out of providing the documents. And he noted that their letter said that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is now looking into “potential liability” that his tax aides broke laws in sharing taxpayer information with the White House.

Epstein said that either Treasury was “stonewalling” his group, or that Lew “is incompetent” for just now looking at potential lawbreaking by his team on the case that is two years old.

They're trying to run out the play clock.

There's an easy answer to this. Redact the specific taxpayer information that's being passed in the email (tax payer numbers, socials, dollar amount etc), but leave in the information about  who sent and who received the emails, and the basic subject of the email so we can see if the tax payer information was passed to the White House was intended for political purposes, and who initiated the transmissions. We need to make both the personnel in the White House and Treasury/IRS accountable for their action.

Under the Obama administration, the IRS has become one the enforcement arms of gangster government.  The IRS needs to have its propensity to play favorites for the Democrats revealed and highlighted (good luck with having ABC, NBC, CBS and NPR axis carry that message) and it's ability to do so broken, either by amending the tax laws and making the selective enforcement of laws they favor on the people they don't favor impossible, or by simply putting enough of them in jail as a message to discourage the rest.

Then, put into place my "Modest Proposal". Strict affirmative action in government hiring by political leanings. Let the foxes watch the foxes.