An IRS whistleblower who filed a complaint in July about “inappropriate efforts to influence” President Donald Trump’s tax audit has reportedly turned down an invitation to have a transcribed interview with the Senate Finance Committee.
According to CNN’s report on Tuesday, the whistleblower declined to voluntarily testify because they were told doing so could potentially violate the IRS code that bars staffers from revealing information on taxpayers, which could lead to jail time.
Committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) met with the whistleblower in November to discuss the complaint, which alleges that a Treasury Department staffer tried to interfere with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s annual tax audits for political reasons.
The whistleblower also flagged their report to the House Ways and Means Committee, which is currently wrestling the Trump administration for access to the President’s concealed tax returns.
When asked for confirmation of CNN’s report, a spokesperson for Grassley told TPM the committee “does not publicly discuss” whistleblower meetings that “have or have not happened.”
So Chuck…are you still protecting any whistleblower this week or not?
It seems that you might be able to structure an interview that doesn’t get the whistleblower in trouble with the IRS if you wanted to.
It’s almost like the whistleblower has seen how the GOP treats people who care about the rule of law, imagine that?
Of course the whole point of “whistle blower” laws are that the only way it works is if a whistle blower has complete confidence in their anonymity. I wouldn’t want any steps toward being identified either, and Republicans would be even hotter on the whistle blowers trail in this case.
They pull the fire alarm. They don’t investigate the fire or put it out (the latter because they aren’t in a position to).
As a government employee I once went to the guy above my supervisor to discuss serious problems the supervisor was causing which that guy would not be otherwise aware of, an analysis of the situation that many coworkers were also talking about. He discussed that everything would be in confidence and I reemphasized that in our conversation. The next day he went right to the supervisor and repeated everything I said and identified me as the messenger.
I was dead in the water after that. I had to get a different job at a different location.
When asked for confirmation of CNN’s report, a spokesperson for Grassley told TPM the committee “does not publicly discuss” whistleblower meetings that “have or have not happened.”
Schrödinger’s Whistleblower.
Seems like an obvious attempt at entrapment.
If they were serious about obtaining facts, they’d have offered some kind of immunity so the witness could testify.
The GOP are thugs.