GOP Rep. McClintock: Did IRS Leak Romney Tax History to Reid?

The Internal Revenue Service could have revealed sensitive tax information about GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney during last year's presidential campaign, Republican Rep. Tom McClintock charged Thursday.

McClintock pointed out in a speech on the House floor that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suddenly claimed that Romney paid no tax. When he was challenged on his source Reid clammed up.

"There's now reason to believe that IRS officials leaked confidential tax information to top officials in the Obama campaign, and to liberal groups, such as ProPublica and the Huffington Post, which may then have illegally published that information," McClintock said.

He said Reid's comments, combined with those made by former Obama administration official Austan Goolsbee about the billionaire Republican-supporting Koch brothers raised many questions, The Hill reports.

"During the campaign, Austan Goolsbee and Harry Reid referenced confidential tax information from Charles and David Koch and Mitt Romney, only to back off when they were pressed for their sources."

Reid alleged several times during the campaign that Romney had paid no taxes for 10 years, saying the Republican nominee was "hiding something." But Reid never offered the source of his information.

Given that Romney released only two years of his tax records, many Republicans were stumped as to how Reid could know anything about eight other years.