[caption id=”attachment_84403″ align=”aligncenter” width=”1024″]AP Photo/J. David Ake, File
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The Obama administration is withholding hundreds of documents related to the IRS targeting scandal from a Washington, D.C.-based newspaper, and multiple aspects of the story are total head-scratchers.
The Hill requested through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 512 documents that it said “might provide a glimpse of the [IRS’] decision-making,” but the agency’s inspector general cited legal exemptions to deny the request in totality. The IG also said that it couldn’t release relevant documents at the expense of “interference with the law enforcement proceedings” — but as The Hill noted, congressional Republicans don’t foresee an investigation, and it’s been reported that federal charges are unlikely.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn’t plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service’s heightened scrutiny of conservative groups, law-enforcement officials said,” The Wall Street Journal wrote in June.
The Hill appealed the IG’s decision to withhold the documents. It was denied.
The newspaper sought comment. It received none.
Hashtag “most transparent administration evar.”
The Hill provided a lengthy explanation for its document request, saying that questions in the GOP’s investigation pertaining to “who knew what when” remain unresolved. The paper also included this odd nugget at the conclusion of its report:
Judicial Watch, another group that has sued the Obama administration on FOIA, said in December that the [Department of Justice] withheld 832 documents pertaining to meetings between the IRS and the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and Election Crimes Division.
Some of the documents that The Hill requested were released to Judicial Watch last year after a judge ruled in favor of the conservative group’s lawsuit.
So not only did the IRS provide to The Hill an incredible excuse for withholding all of the requested documents — it already has released some of the same documents to a conservative watchdog group.
You wouldn’t see a more full-throated effort to sweep stuff under the rug the morning after a house party.
