Republicans Accuse Dems of Using IRS Audits to Bully Conservative Groups

From TheBlaze.com:

Congressional Republicans are accusing Democrats and administration officials of leaking privileged IRS information and using invasive audits to bully conservative groups, the New York Times says, and they are not happy about it.

The first charge by Republicans Senators centers around a senior Obama administration official who may have improperly accessed the tax records of Koch Industries, an oil company whose owners are major conservative donors, while the second charge lambastes Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) for scoping the funding activities of historically conservative tax-exempt groups.

According to the Times, the Treasury Department has opened up an investigation regarding allegations by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)* and six other Republican senators who claim a senior administration official disclosed confidential taxpayer information regarding Koch Industries — whose owners are major conservative donors — during a conference call with journalists.

During that call, the official pointed to Koch Industries as an example of “multibillion-dollar businesses that are structured as partnerships in ways that allow them to avoid paying sizable corporate taxes.”