Posted on 07/23/2002 12:38:06 PM PDT by wcdukenfield
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 23, 2002
Contact: Eric Christensen
703-689-2370
(Herndon, Virginia) Landmark Legal Foundation filed a formal complaint today with the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (“OPR”) requesting an immediate investigation into the conduct of the government lawyers responsible for disclosing the identities of scores of taxpayers in public court filings. (United States v. KPMG LLP.) Landmark contends that the Tax Division attorneys responsible for the release of the taxpayers’ identities did so in contravention of Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, relevant IRS regulations, and Justice Department guidelines.
Among the taxpayers identified by the Tax Division attorneys is William E. Simon, Jr., the Republican gubernatorial candidate in California. The lead Tax Division attorney challenging KPMG’s tax shelter advice is Stuart D. Gibson -- a Democratic Party activist in Virginia.
Mark R. Levin, Landmark’s president, declared: “The IRS is disputing KPMG’s tax advice to certain of its clients. The public release of the taxpayers’ identities was not only gratuitous, but likely unlawful. It’s critical that the IRS and Justice Department keep taxpayer information confidential and avoid even the appearance of political partisanship. OPR must take immediate steps to reassure the public that it will comply with taxpayer privacy rights.”
Landmark litigated against the IRS for 5 years for information about politically motivated audits against non-profit organizations. The IRS and the Tax Division insisted in that litigation that federal law prohibited the release of any tax return information, including the identity of third parties requesting audits of non-profit organizations and the identity of the targeted organizations.
Levin added: “The IRS can’t have it both ways. Either there are broad protections of privacy or there are not. It is not free to abuse those protections when it serves its purposes and to intimidate taxpayers.”
Landmark is a public interest legal group with offices in Herndon, Virginia and Kansas City, Missouri.
Landmark’s OPR complaint is posted on its website:www.landmarklegal.org. Landmark is a public interest legal group with offices in Herndon, Virginia and Kansas City, Missouri.
All Landmark Legal ever does is issue Press Releases! Has Levin ever won a case? All he cares about is raising money, money, money, and getting his face on the TV news. Anyone have that picture of him trying to edge in on A.G. Ashcroft? Where is it?! He's probably even sued his own mother!!!! Well, I for one will never give him one red cent! Not one!
</sarcasm>
As a matter of fact, they don't. The number of political appointees a President can make is quite small. Most of these government employees are career employees with civil service protection.
Nice try, though, Registered.
I'd never heard or noticed that. Which might those be?
Landmark Legal does a lot of stuff concerning public school education and vouchers. Furthermore, they concentrate on thwarting big-government agendas, whereas Judicial Watch mainly concentrates on fighting government corruption and fraud.
I have never seen Landmark Legal concentrate on the types of cases that Judicial Watch takes on, such as the Loral Shareholder's suit and JW's work with the Discovery process.
Don't blame him for the Bush Justice Department's shortfalls.
LOL!
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