The Weekly Standard is reporting today on Austan Goolsbee, formerly of the White House staff and his possible illegal access to IRS records of opponents of president Obama. Here is the key paragraph:
In August 2010, Austan Goolsbee, serving at the time as economic adviser to President Obama, told reporters during an anonymous background briefing that Koch Industries doesn't pay corporate income taxes. That statement was made at the same time that top Democrats, including President Obama himself, were demonizing Charles and David Koch, the owners of Koch Industries, for giving money to Tea Party groups. Goolsbee's remark led to a federal investigation, the results of which have never been released.
The law has been quite clear since Watergate: the White House staff is not allowed access to or information from specific tax returns filed by individuals or corporations. Since there is no place where the tax filing status of Koch Industries has been made public, there is no way that Goolsbee could know whether or not Koch Industries paid federal taxes other than illegally gaining access from the IRS itself.
It is strange that probably the best defense available to Goosbee is that what he told the reporters was wrong. Koch Industries does pay taxes, at least according to the General Counsel of that company. It may just be that Goolsbee's attack on Koch was another lie told by the White House in an effort to discredit an opponent. On the other hand, this may be another bit of proof that the White House ignored the law that protects American citizens from snooping through their tax returns. If so, a crime may have been committed.
The more we learn about Obama and the IRS, the more Obama looks like Nixon.
In August 2010, Austan Goolsbee, serving at the time as economic adviser to President Obama, told reporters during an anonymous background briefing that Koch Industries doesn't pay corporate income taxes. That statement was made at the same time that top Democrats, including President Obama himself, were demonizing Charles and David Koch, the owners of Koch Industries, for giving money to Tea Party groups. Goolsbee's remark led to a federal investigation, the results of which have never been released.
The law has been quite clear since Watergate: the White House staff is not allowed access to or information from specific tax returns filed by individuals or corporations. Since there is no place where the tax filing status of Koch Industries has been made public, there is no way that Goolsbee could know whether or not Koch Industries paid federal taxes other than illegally gaining access from the IRS itself.
It is strange that probably the best defense available to Goosbee is that what he told the reporters was wrong. Koch Industries does pay taxes, at least according to the General Counsel of that company. It may just be that Goolsbee's attack on Koch was another lie told by the White House in an effort to discredit an opponent. On the other hand, this may be another bit of proof that the White House ignored the law that protects American citizens from snooping through their tax returns. If so, a crime may have been committed.
The more we learn about Obama and the IRS, the more Obama looks like Nixon.
No comments:
Post a Comment