The IRS scandal continues to brew:
IRS officials in Washington ordered special scrutiny: congressional investigation finds
"IRS employees have told congressional investigators that they were ordered by the agency’s Washington office to give extra scrutiny to tea party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status, according to excerpts from interviews with the employees that were released by House committee chairmen Wednesday.
"Carter Hull, a tax law specialist with 48 years of experience at the IRS, told investigators that Lois Lerner, the former head of the Exempt Organizations division, demanded he send some of the reviews of tea party groups to the IRS chief counsel’s office in Washington. The chief counsel is one of two political appointees in the IRS."
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In a related story:
Former GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell told her tax records were breached
"Mr. Martel, a criminal investigator for the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration, told Christine O'Donnell that an official in Delaware state government had improperly accessed her records on March 9, 2010, the day she revealed her plan to run for the Senate in a press release. [Mr. Martel told Ms. O'Donnell that the man had no legitimate reason to access her records and that investigators had seen other instances like hers in which tax privacy had been breached.]
". . . . investigators . . . have run into a wall of silence, leaving more questions than answers about whether abuses of the IRS system extend to private individuals and not just the tax-exempt groups already identified as victims.
"Investigators for Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, an influential Republican who serves on the Finance and Judiciary committees, have uncovered one key issue: a backdoor system in which state officials can access Americans’ private tax records in the name of investigating with little oversight or accountability.
". . . . at least four politicians or political donors have had their personal tax records improperly accessed through that system since 2006, including one case in which a willful violation of federal law was identified.
"But the Justice Department has declined to prosecute any of the offenders.
"Ms. O'Donnell’s attempts to get records about the possible misuse of her tax files through Freedom of Information Act requests have been delayed or denied. . . ."
"The mystery aside, the incident has shined a spotlight on the access non-IRS employees have to Americans’ personal tax records.
"There is little public knowledge of such inquiries, and whether they are legally justified or if they’re being abused by those with political axes to grind.
"Ms. O'Donnell said she has reason to believe her political opponents were behind the scheme.
"'An official with this investigation told me that there was evidence linking this inappropriate use of my tax records with the Delaware political leadership, Delaware political leaders on both sides of the aisle,' she said, though she declined to identify the official with whom she spoke.
"Ms. O'Donnell’s financial life was a subject of intense media scrutiny and was used repeatedly by her enemies."
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This story is steaming into a true witch's brew.
The IRS scandal continues to brew:
