Darrell Issa claims proof of DOJ working with Democrats to leak documents

Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he knows for a fact the Department of Justice tried to coordinate with Democrats to leak documents to the press — a Justice official mistakenly called his office to set the wheels in motion, he said.

The documents pertained to the committee’s investigation of the Internal Revenue Service and whether that agency targeted conservative and tea party groups that were seeking nonprofit status. Mr. Issa has been trying to get to the bottom of the matter for months.

He said a Justice official just recently called the committee and reached a member of Mr. Issa’s staff. But apparently, the Justice official didn’t know he was speaking to a Republican, The Blaze reported.

The official “then asked the committee employee if the committee would agree to release the material to selected reporters and thereby allow the department the opportunity to comment publicly on it,” Mr. Issa said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, The Blaze reported.

The documents dealt with Andrew Strelka, a former IRS employee who now works at the Department of Justice — and who is also involved in the investigation of the IRS. Republicans have said on several prior occasions that Mr. Strelka’s involvement is a conflict of interest.

Mr. Issa then said the staffer asked for the documents, and the Justice official put the telephone call on hold for a few minutes. When he returned to the phone, he seemed “audibly shaken,” and there was a sudden “change in plans,” Mr. Issa said, The Blaze reported. Suddenly, the Justice Department didn’t want to release the documents early any longer.

The congressman alleged the call gives a red flag that Democrats on the committee and members of the executive branch are trying to “obfuscate and prejudice the committee’s work through under-the-table coordination,” he wrote.

Mr. Issa called for Mr. Holder to respond to these charges by Sept. 15.

“I am extremely troubled by this attempt to improperly coordinate the release of committee documents with the minority staff,” Mr. Issa said in the letter, The Blaze reported. “This effort to preemptively release incomplete and selectively chosen information undermines department’s claims that it is responding in good faith.”