IRS agent who leaked NOM donor list identified—and kept confidential

Date: 

Friday, November 1, 2013

BY BEN JOHNSON

Thu Oct 31, 2013 19:44 EST

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The IRS agent responsible for leaking confidential tax documents from the National Organization for Marriage to homosexual activists and left-wing media outlets has been identified after a Congressional investigation. But in an ironic twist, the Internal Revenue Service is forbidden from disclosing whether the employee has been prosecuted, fired, or even reprimanded.

The pro-family movement and its allies are demanding full prosecution, if it has not been carried out.

The pro-family movement and its allies are demanding full prosecution of the IRS employee who leaked the documents, if it has not been carried out.

In March 2012, an unnamed Obama administration employee turned sensitive tax documents from NOM – including its full donor list – over to the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual activist group. The president of HRC, John Solmonese, went on to be a national co-chair of Obama's 2012 campaign. From there, the documents were printed onThe Huffington Post and picked up by numerous mainstream media outlets.

During Congressional hearings in June, John Eastman, the chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, accused the IRS of “illegally using confidential information that must be filed with the IRS to facilitate the intimidation of donors.”

“The Supreme Court ruled in the landmark 1958 case National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Alabama that organizations like NOM have the right to keep their membership and donor lists private,” Eliana Johnson wrote in National Review. Breaking the law is a felony that could result in up to five years in prison.

Yet months after the fact, NOM still could not learn whether justice had been served in its case.

“Stonewalled in its attempts to discover on its own the source of the felonious conduct against it, NOM has also received no satisfaction from the law enforcement authorities of the United States, whose duty it is to prosecute felonious disclosure of confidential tax returns,” Eastman said in June.

The Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee launched an investigation and has identified the leaker.

Chairman David Camp, R-MI, told Johnson the guilty party worked for the IRS Exempt Organizations Division. The group, which until just months ago was led by Lois Lerner, singled out pro-life, evangelical Christian, Catholic, Tea Party, and other conservative organizations for additional scrutiny before granting tax-exempt status. The allegation furthers deep suspicions that the Obama administration has politicized every agency of the federal government to reward its friends and punish its foes.

However, the same IRS code that makes it illegal to reveal taxpayers' documents also makes it illegal to reveal the outcome of internal investigations – including whether the employee was fired or reprimanded, or is still toiling away in the division.

In an unsigned editorial, Investors Business Daily called for prosecution in a criminal court of law.

“Eastman, a constitutional lawyer, believes Eric Holder and the Department of Justice could still bring an indictment and lift the veil of secrecy,” IBD wrote. “But then, we thought that about Fast and Furious, too.”