The
Daily Signal
IRS
Admits Wrongdoing, to Pay $50,000 in Leaking of Marriage Group’s
Tax Return
Ken
McIntyre
June
24, 2014
Two
years after activists for same-sex marriage obtained the confidential
tax return and donor list of a national group opposed to redefining
marriage, the Internal Revenue Service has admitted wrongdoing and
agreed to settle the resulting lawsuit.
The
Daily Signal has learned that, under a consent judgment today, the
IRS agreed to pay $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for
Marriage as a result of the unlawful release of the confidential
information to a gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, that is
NOM’s chief political rival.
“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.”
The
Daily Signal is seeking comment on the settlement from the IRS and
Justice Department.
Update:
At 5:28 p.m, IRS spokesman Bruce I. Friedland emailed: “Privacy
law, specifically Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code,
prohibits us from commenting.”
In
his order entered this morning, District Court Judge James C.
Cacheris granted the settlement of NOM’s suit against the IRS,
which was represented by the Department of Justice.
In
February 2012, the Human Rights Campaign posted on its web site NOM’s
2008 tax return and the names and contact information of the marriage
group’s major donors, including soon-to-be Republican presidential
nominee Mitt Romney. That information then was published by the
Huffington Post and other liberal-leaning news sites.
HRC’s
president at the time, Joe Solmonese, was tapped that same month as a
national co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s re-election
campaign.
Eastman
said an investigation in the civil lawsuit determined that someone
gave NOM’s tax return and list of major donors to Boston-based gay
rights activist Matthew Meisel. Email correspondence from Meisel
revealed that he told a colleague of “a conduit” to obtain the
marriage group’s confidential information.
Testifying
under oath in a deposition as part of the lawsuit filed in U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Meisel invoked
his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself and declined to
disclose the identity of his “conduit.”
To
get at that fact, Eastman said, the National Organization for
Marriage has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to grant immunity
from prosecution to Meisel.
The
$50,000 to be paid by the IRS represents actual damages NOM incurred
responding to the illegal disclosure, not punitive damages, since
the marriage group was unable to prove disclosure of the confidential
records was deliberate after Meisel took the Fifth.
Meisel
provided the marriage group’s tax data to the Human Rights
Campaign, documents found as part of the investigation show. HRC is
among organizations and activists advocating same-sex marriage that
routinely describe NOM as a “hate group” or “anti-gay” for
making the case for preserving marriage as the union of one man and
one woman.
“We
urge other groups that have suffered similar problems with the IRS to
keep pressing until they, too, are fully vindicated,” Eastman said.
Eastman
was referring to ongoing congressional probes and lawsuits over IRS
targeting of tea party and other conservative groups that sought
tax-exempt status.
In a
draft press release on the settlement and admission by the IRS of
wrongdoing, Eastman said:
It
has been a long and arduous process to hold the IRS accountable for
their illegal release of our confidential tax return and donor list,
which was ultimately given to our chief political rival by the
recipient. In the beginning, the government claimed that the IRS had
done nothing wrong and that NOM itself must have released our
confidential information. Thanks to a lot of hard work, we’ve
forced the IRS to admit that they in fact were the ones to break the
law and wrongfully released this confidential information.
Eastman,
a lawyer and law professor, also is a member of the ActRight Legal
Foundation team that brought the lawsuit against the federal
government and the IRS on NOM’s behalf in October 2013. He said at
the time that the Human Rights Campaign removed “redaction layers”
from the electronic documents showing they originated at the IRS.
In
May 2012, Eastman and NOM President Brian Brown asked the Department
of Justice to investigate and prosecute the case. Eastman appeared
last June before the House Committee on Ways and Means to testify
about the illegal disclosure o the marriage group’s donors.
Unauthorized
disclosure of confidential tax information is a felony offense that
can result in five years in prison, but the Department of Justice did
not bring criminal charges.
“We
urge the Congress to explore this issue with the appropriate
government officials,” Eastman said. “It’s imperative that all
those who have engaged in corrupt practices and illegal acts in the
IRS be identified and held accountable.”
Read
this and other articles with links at The Daily Signal
.
|