IRS Admits It Still Has Some Records to Release

There have been books written about it, movies made about it, and for a time, that’s all Republicans and conservative political pundits wanted to talk about.

So, how is it that after more than four years, we’re still talking about the IRS’s “targeting scandal” of conservative political groups that sought nonprofit status ahead of the 2012 presidential election? Perhaps it’s because the IRS is still withholding information from the public.

Judicial Watch has announced the IRS reported to a U.S. district court judge that it located “an additional 6,924 documents of potentially responsive records” relating to a 2015 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The government watchdog group—among the many that were targeted by the IRS—sought records about the agency’s selection of individuals and organizations for audits based upon applications requesting nonprofit tax status filed by Tea Party and other 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations.

It is believed these new documents are not contained in the so-called “Congressional Database” created in 2013 following House and Senate inquiries into the scandal. Although it has found them, the IRS was unwilling to commit to a schedule for releasing the new documents.

In the report to the judge, the agency stated:

At this time, the Service is unable to provide an estimate regarding when it will complete its review of the potentially responsive documents. The Service will begin producing any non-exempt, responsive documents by March 10, 2017, and, if necessary, continue to produce non-responsive records on a bi-weekly basis.

In September 2014, Judicial Watch was able to force the IRS to release documents about how it had sought, obtained and maintained donor information from those nonprofits. The Treasury Department’s internal watchdog later concluded that information was unnecessary for IRS to complete its duties, and noted the information was being kept for a “secret research project.”

In July 2015, the watchdog group released more IRS documents confirming that the agency used donor lists of tax-exempt organizations to target those donors for audits.

“The corruption at the IRS is astounding,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “Our attorneys knew that there were more records to be searched, but the Obama IRS ignored this issue for years. President Trump needs to clean house at the IRS as quickly as possible.” {eoa}