A bipartisan coalition of House members is demanding the IRS brief them on its warrantless surveillance tech.
In a Thursday letter addressed to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, leaders of the House Oversight Committee, including Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and ranking member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., demanded to know details behind the IRS program to spy on taxpayers using cell-site simulators, and requested that a briefing on the program be scheduled within a week.
In addition to the agency’s policies, guidance and memos on the program, the members requested “all documents referring or relating to any allegation of misuse” and “agreements entered into by the IRS with state and local law enforcement agencies.”
“You recently confirmed before the Senate Finance Committee that the IRS uses such devices in furtherance of its criminal investigations,” the members wrote. “As it was with [the departments of Justice and Homeland Security] before those agencies issued department-wide policies governing use of the devices, the committee is concerned that other federal agencies may be governed by a patchwork of policies.”
On Tuesday, Chaffetz introduced a resolution to impeach Koskinen, accusing him of misleading committee members in testimony about his agency’s targeting of conservative groups. Cummings derided the resolution as a “stunt” and a “joke.” But when it comes to the use of Stingrays, cell-site simulators that collect telephonic metadata, members are in rare agreement.
The letter was also signed by Subcommittee on Information Technology Chairman Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Robin Kelly, D-Ill. It followed a letter from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ranking Member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
“What it does is to primarily allow you to see point-to-point, where communications are taking place. It does not allow you to overhear — the technique doesn’t — voice communications. You may pick up texting,” Koskinen told the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.
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While the “technique” may not pick up voice communications, the technology itself does have the ability to do that. It isn’t clear what Koskinen was referring to in terms of a “technique,” due to the fact that the particulars of the technology are highly secretive.
