Treasury Department investigating US Attorney for leaking state Supreme Court Justice's tax returns

Larisa Alexandrovna

Published: Monday December 1, 2008





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The Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and the US Treasury Department are investigating allegations that a Bush-appointed US Attorney inappropriately shared private income tax information on one of his targets with a state judicial commission that included one of his relatives, according to court documents and a source close to the investigation.



Dunnica Lampton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, is already under investigation for allegations of political prosecutions in his state. According to new documents viewed by Raw Story, Lampton allegedly shared the private income tax records of then-Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver E. Diaz Jr. with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance and with one of its then-commissioners, his distant cousin Leslie B. Lampton.



The US Attorney also shared the tax records of Diaz's wife, Jennifer, and those were also allegedly shared without authorization, said a source close to the DOJ investigation. Documents shown to Raw Story relating to the case confirm that a criminal investigation is underway. These documents did not include the Diaz's tax returns themselves.



In addition to the Justice Department investigation, the office of the United States Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration is also probing Lampton's conduct, the source said. The special agent assigned to the case is said to be Kelly Sopko.



Reached by phone last Monday, a Treasury spokesperson would not confirm that Sopko worked for the Department or that there was an investigation.



Sopko also did not respond to repeated emails and calls for comment.



The Commission on Judicial Performance

since said

Tax returns had not been in the public record

earlier this year

Third attempt to remove Diaz from court

[email protected]