Judicial Watch Continues Fight over IRS Criminal Investigation Facts

Seeks Information on Obama, Democrat Donor Barbara Bosserman’s Involvement in IRS Investigation

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch is asking a federal appellate court to overturn a lower court’s ruling allowing the Obama Justice Department to withhold records detailing the number of hours that agency attorney Barbara Bosserman expended on the investigation of the IRS targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections cycles. The opening appellate brief was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on February 16, 2016 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 15-5271)).

This lawsuit forced the Obama Justice Department to confirm the existence of a criminal investigation into the IRS’ abuses and that Bosserman, a major donor to Obama’s political campaigns and the Democratic National Committee, was part of the team of lawyers criminally investigating the issue. (On October 23, 2015, the Justice Department announced in a letter that it would not press any charges over the IRS abuse scandal.)

In 2014, Judicial Watch filed a 2014 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking records detailing the number of hours Bosserman expended on the IRS matter. In 2015, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the agency had properly withheld the Bosserman records under the “attorney work product doctrine.” Judicial Watch argues to the appellate court:

[T]he Department presented no evidence whatsoever that the records requested by Judicial Watch were created in anticipation of litigation. The District Court also did not make such a finding. Instead the Department argued and the court ruled that some of the information contained in the responsive records was protected by the attorney work product doctrine. Because the requested records were created in the ordinary course of business – to assist senior officials in their management responsibilities – the records do not fall within the scope of the attorney work product doctrine. The records are being improperly withheld in their entirety.

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