A judge has ruled that there was a ‘strong showing’ the IRS had a bias against Tea Party groups.
Details about tea party bias claims against the IRS could remain secret because current and former agency officials say their lives are in danger if they publicly testify about the case.
Lois Lerner and Holly Paz both have argued in recent court filings that the threat to their lives outweighs the public’s right to hear their testimony about how IRS employees in Cincinnati and Washington D.C. handled applications for tax-exempt status from tea party groups.
They recently filed evidence to support their claim under seal in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. Though that evidence has not been made public, court records indicate it relates to death threats and other harassment the women say they endured after their names were connected to the bias claims against the IRS several years ago.
“This documentation, as the court will see, makes very personal references and contains graphic, profane and disturbing language that would lead to unnecessary intrusion and embarrassment if made public,” their attorneys argued in a recent court brief. “Public dissemination of their deposition testimony would put their lives in serious jeopardy.”
Attorneys for the tea party groups suing the IRS say the argument against full disclosure doesn’t hold up. They asked the court Wednesday to make the IRS officials’ testimony public and to also open a May 19 hearing to the public.
Their arguments, like most documents in the case, are not publicly available because U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett ordered them filed under seal. The hearing on May 19 will address those issues, but it, too, is closed to the public.
Edward Greim, an attorney for the tea party groups, said he’s not permitted to discuss the brief he filed under seal, but said the allegations against the IRS are serious and the public has a right to know what happened. The tea party groups expect Lerner and Paz to shed light on the issue when they testify in sworn depositions.
“Generally, our position is that this is a matter of great public interest and there is no legal basis for sealing the depositions or the arguments about whether the depositions should be sealed,” Greim said.
The lawsuit in Cincinnati is one of several filed against the IRS after agency officials acknowledged in 2013 they had singled out conservative-leaning “public interest” groups for extra attention while reviewing their applications for nonprofit, tax-exempt status. Under the law, such groups are permitted to conduct some political activity as long as it is not the majority of their work.
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