{"id":563142,"date":"2021-06-14T11:21:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T15:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=563142"},"modified":"2021-06-14T11:21:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T15:21:18","slug":"top-senate-republicans-demand-justice-department-probe-into-tax-disclosures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-senate-republicans-demand-justice-department-probe-into-tax-disclosures\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Senate Republicans Demand Justice Department Probe Into Tax Disclosures"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftop-senate-republicans-demand-justice-department-probe-into-tax-disclosures%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=563142&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A number of high-profile Republican senators have requested the Justice Department and FBI investigate the unauthorized disclosure of confidential tax records published last week by ProPublica.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with Senators Chuck Grassley and Mike Crapo, asked Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate last week\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax?utm_medium=social&#038;utm_source=twitter\"><u>leak<\/u><\/a> of tax records of the nation\u2019s wealthiest people, according to a letter obtained by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/mcconnell-grassley-crapo-doj-probe-wealthy-tax-disclosure\"><u>Fox News<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTaxpayers have the right to expect that any information they provide to the IRS will not be disclosed unless authorized by the taxpayer or by law,\u201d the senators wrote, asking that those responsible for the leaks be \u201cpunished to the furthest extent the law permits.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/08\/internal-revenue-service-wealthy-americans-taxation-jeff-bezos\/\"><strong><u><b>(RELATED: IRS Data Trove Shows How The Super Wealthy Pay Such Little Taxes: Report)<\/b><\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The leaks, which included tax information of prominent billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, George Soros, and Michael Bloomberg, were published in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/how-we-calculated-the-true-tax-rates-of-the-wealthiest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report<\/a> claiming to show the effective tax rate paid by the wealthiest Americans.<\/p>\n<p>The twenty-five richest Americans added a collective $401 billion to their net worth from 2014 to 2018 while paying $13.6 billion in federal income taxes, according to the report from ProPublica. Warren Buffet was allegedly the stingiest, paying only $23.7 million in income tax despite seeing his wealth grow by $24.3 billion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnauthorized disclosure of returns or return information is a felony, punishable by up to five years\u2019 imprisonment and\/or a $5,000 fine,\u201d the senators warned in the letter.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7213104\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"32\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7213104\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7213104\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig testifies to Senate. (Photo by Tom Williams-Pool\/Getty Images)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-scaled-1.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/cdn01.dailycaller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-180x120.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-620x413-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-768x512-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-1536x1024-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-2048x1366-1.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7213104\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig testifies to Senate. (Photo by Tom Williams-Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The senators also raised concerns that the leaks were politically motivated, claiming \u201cthe unpunished violation of section 6130 to advance a political agenda related to tax policy will beget continued invasion of Americans\u2019 privacy to advance all manner of partisan objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOrdinary Americans who turn over their personal information to the IRS because they will go to jail if they don\u2019t, have every reason to fear that they may too become a victim to the political machinations of activists inside and outside of the IRS,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>The senators argued \u201cconservatives in particular have reason to fear\u201d in reference to the Obama administration\u2019s IRS subjecting conservative organizations to <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2016\/10\/12\/obamas-tax-lawyers-had-conservative-groups-confidential-information\/\"><u>heightened scrutiny<\/u><\/a>, writing, \u201cWanton and criminal abuse of the tax system disproportionately \u2013 indeed, exclusively \u2013 advances the objectives of the political left in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Republicans also acknowledged the possibility that the leaks were the result of a cyber attack.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney General Merrick Garland has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/06\/09\/garland-probe-irs-data-leak-492773\"><u>already said<\/u><\/a>\u00a0that investigating the leaks is a priority for the Justice Department, while Commissioner of Internal Revenue Charles Rettig <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-06-10\/billionaire-tax-leak-referred-to-fbi-as-probe-grows-irs-says\"><u>announced<\/u><\/a> last Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service would be referring the matter to the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A number of high-profile Republican senators have requested the Justice Department and FBI investigate the unauthorized disclosure of confidential tax records published last week by ProPublica.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2280204,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Top Senate Republicans Demand Justice Department Probe Into Tax Disclosures","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-563142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/CharlesRettigIRS-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Top Senate Republicans Demand Justice Department Probe Into Tax Disclosures","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}