- 21 -
2. Senatorial Office Press Release
Exhibit 23-P is a February 27, 2002, press release from the
office of Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, which asserts
that in 2001 respondent lost tax returns and other documents from
about 71,000 people from “upstate” New York and New England. The
press release states that employees at a Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, bank “reportedly destroyed or hid thousands of tax
documents * * * because they felt they could not meet the IRS’
processing deadlines.” Respondent objects on the grounds of
hearsay and relevance. Petitioner’s position is:
the document covers error related to lost documents
similar in time to the documents petitioner claimed
were lost by the IRS. As such, this tends to prove the
IRS looses [sic] documents on occasion, which satisfies
the relevancy requirement.
As to the hearsay objection, petitioner directs our attention to
all or part of rules 801, 802, 803, 807, 901(b), 902, 1001, and
1005 of the Federal Rules of Evidence.
The statements as to matters of fact asserted in Exhibit 23-
P relate to documents lost 2 years before the events we deal with
in the instant case, by an office some 2,000 miles from
respondent’s offices in the instant case, and lost because a
private contractor’s employees were concerned about deadlines
imposed on them by respondent. The matter dealt with in Exhibit
23-P is so remote from “any fact that is of consequence to the
determination of the action” before us that we conclude Exhibit
Page: Previous 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011