Chairman Garrett Hits Back on IRS' Non-Answers

Sep 18, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chairman Scott Garrett, along with six of his colleagues, sent a follow-up letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen today after the IRS Commissioner refused to address a number of concerns the Members have about news of the recent IRS dismissal agreement with the Freedom from Religion Foundation. 

Within 30 days of receiving the letter, the Members requested that the following be provided:

  1. Any communications, from July 1, 2012 to the present, regarding the subject matter of my August 25th letter, including any documents related to, or relevant to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, PARC, or the Johnson Amendment.  You should regard relevancy as broadly as federal law permits, including, but not limited, to any internal communications, communications with outside groups, communications with the White House or other executive branch agencies.
  2. Any communications or documents, from August 25th to the present, related to preparing your response to my August 25th, 2014 letter including, but not limited to, any internal communications, communications with outside groups, communications with the White House or other executive branch agencies.
  3. Any communications or documents, from July 1, 2012 to the present, related to the activities of PARC and the 99 religious organizations under investigation that are referenced in your September 5th letter.  Where necessary to preserve the confidentiality of the taxpayers under investigation, you may redact confidential taxpayer information or other information that may specifically distinguish the taxpayer.  Your response should include all relevant communications and documents including, but not limited to, any internal communications, communications with outside groups, communications with the White House or other executive branch agencies.
  4. Where necessary, to preserve attorney-client privilege, you may redact privileged information and provide a standard privilege log.
  5. Please provide the names and positions of all people who spent any time as part of, or on behalf of, PARC.

Also, a number of previous questions (asked in my August 25th letter) remained un-answered and can be addressed by you, rather than the Department of Justice.

  1.  Please provide answers to questions 4, 5 & 6 from our previous letter dated August 25, 2014.

Click here to read the full letter.

###