Tell the Ways and Means Committee to Use Its Subpoena Power to get to the bottom of the IRS Scandal

The National Organization of Marriage has been the victim of a felony in that someone within the IRS leaked NOM's confidential tax return in 2012 to our political opponents. This criminal provided our tax documents, with the names of several donors, to the Human Rights Campaign and the Huffington Post. It is a felony to have provided this information and to have revealed the confidential names of NOM's donors.
Since learning about this, NOM has filed numerous "Freedom of Information Requests" and demanded that the IRS take action against the perpetrator. To this point NOM has received no satisfactory answer from the IRS as to the status of the investigation or even if one is under way.

The scandal made national news when it was also revealed that the IRS inappropriately targeted conservative organizations for particular scrutiny in their applications for tax-exempt status. However, what happened to NOM goes beyond targeting to a felony crime.
Here are several talking points about the scandal; followed by action items NOM has demanded the Ways and Means Committee take to resolve this issue.

Talking points:

• In March, 2012, someone at the IRS leaked the National Organization for Marriage's confidential tax return — a felony — to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which posted the document on its website. HRC is NOM's principal opponent in the marriage battle and has waged a war of intimidation and harassment against NOM and those active in the effort to preserve marriage. In early 2012, HRC president, Joseph Solmonese, was appointed a national co-chair of the Obama reelection campaign. A few months later, the publication of NOM's tax return occurred.

• NOM's published Form 990 Schedule B from 2008 contained the identity of dozens of major NOM donors. NOM knows the document was from internal IRS because under a mask that was applied to the document to hide the origin, which computer programs were able to remove, revealed the internal IRS stamp on the document, on every single page in the same location.

• In early April 2012 after the publication of their tax returns, NOM asked both the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for investigations. NOM knows TIGTA conducted an investigation, but they never identified the perpetrator of this crime. If charges are brought, federal law requires that the taxpayer be advised.

• Beginning last August 2012, NOM began filing a series of FOIA and Privacy Act requests with TIGTA and the IRS to try to ascertain the status of the investigation, the identity of the perpetrator, and any information relating to where the decision was made to commit this felony against NOM for obvious political purposes. Those requests have been stonewalled, with the latest non-response response, dated May 3, 2013, claiming that the very same statute that was violated by disclosing our returns shields the identity of the perpetrator as the "subject" of an IRS investigation.

• The IRS, the DOJ, and TIGTA have not brought charges against the individuals who committed these felonies in over a year, and they are using a convoluted interpretation of the statute prohibiting disclosure to shield the identity of those same individuals from NOM.

Action Items to Demand of Your Congressman:

• Insist that the House Ways and Means Committee subpoena Joseph Solmonese, and other HRC staff, to determine exactly by what means HRC obtained NOM's confidential donor information

• Pursue full disclosure from former Acting IRS Commission Steven Miller. Mr. Miller was unable to provide satisfactory answers to the Committee on May 17th. The Committee should pursue the unresolved matters with Mr. Miller.