IRS Admits It Illegally Leaked Confidential Information That Was Used Against Romney In 2012
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/06/151431-irs-admits-leaked-confidential-information-used-romney-2012/ February of 2012, gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign posted on its website the 2008 tax return of the National Organization for Marriage - along with the names and contact information of the group’s major donors, including soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
That information was subsequently published by the Huffington Post and other liberal sites. Incidentally, HRC’s president at the time, Joe Solmonese, was the national co-chairman of Barack Obama’s reelection campaign.
Smell a rat? Me, too.
But here’s the real problem: the IRS now admits that it illegally leaked the information – and has agreed to pay NOM $50,000 as a result.
Via The Daily Signal:
“Congress made the disclosure of confidential tax return information a serious matter for a reason,” NOM Chairman John D. Eastman told The Daily Signal.
“We’re delighted that the IRS has now been held accountable for the illegal disclosure of our list of major donors from our tax return.”
Anyway, the IRS someone provided NOM’s tax-return information to Boston-based gay-rights activist Matthew Meisel, who, in turn, provided it to HRC.
The $50,000 represents actual damages NOM incurred responding to the illegal disclosure by the IRS. Punitive damages were not determined because NOM was unable to prove that disclosure of its tax return information was deliberate – after Meisel pled the Fifth.
Irrespective of one’s political and/or social-issue beliefs, this latest example of the blatant and illegal encroachment of the IRS into partisan politics should serve as a further reminder to all that this most powerful of government agencies has dangerously run amok.
