Lawyers for the Internal Revenue Service attempted to stall a criminal investigation by waiting nearly a month before giving an agency employee permission to meet with investigators, despite the employee’s willingness to testify, emails showed.
The emails, obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request, revealed frustration with IRS lawyers over their reluctance to approve a meeting between federal prosecutors and an unnamed tax agency employee who was prepared to give investigators information.
“[W]e find it amazing that they didn’t immediately respond giving us the green light to meet with you,” the IRS employee’s attorney, whose name was redacted, wrote of the IRS counsel in a June 12, 2013 email to Justice Department officials.
But the documents suggest the meeting didn’t take place until July 11 of that year, when a Justice Department official promised not to conduct a “scatter shot interview” of the IRS employee. Two Justice attorneys, two FBI agents and an inspector general agent attended the meeting in order to make the process “more efficient”, the emails said.
The email exchange occurred in the summer of 2013, when the FBI and prosecutors at the Justice Department were probing allegations that IRS officials engaged in a campaign of discrimination against conservative nonprofits. Judicial Watch said the newly released documents offer “the first window into the criminal investigation of the alleged IRS abuses.”
The documents also contained copies of the waivers the IRS employee had to sign before discussing any evidence with investigators.
“I understand that there is a Department of Justice criminal investigation related to public allegations that IRS officials unlawfully discriminated against applicants for tax-exempt status,” the waiver said.
Other forms indicated the IRS employee provided information about the agency’s alleged misconduct in exchange for the assurance that the evidence could not be used against him or her in court.
The documents shed new light on what investigators wanted from the IRS witness.
“[W]e would also appreciate obtaining the email communications … pertaining to the 501(c)-application issues we discussed yesterday, i.e., the public allegations that the IRS ‘targeted’ certain groups based on their political viewpoints, in particular groups associated with the ‘Tea Party,’” an unnamed Justice attorney wrote in an email.
Interest in the alleged IRS scandal remains high nearly two years after an inspector general report detailed the delays and excessive scrutiny some agency officials heaped on conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. The House Oversight Committee has not let up on plans to further its probe of the charges.
