Michele Bachmann handled tax case against Leech Lake man

Monday, July 11, 2011  

As an attorney for the Internal Revenue Service, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), a 2012 Republican candidate for president, was assigned to collect taxes from Marvin Manypenny, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe.

Manypenny, 64, lives on the reservation. He refused to pay federal taxes on a salary he drew while fighting a land claim settlement with the U.S.

The amount wasn't high -- only about $6,000 in taxes and $1,495 in penalties, The Wall Street Journal reported. But Manypenny said the future politician wasn't budging.

"She was trying to say, 'This is the way it is. You have to conform to the laws,' " Manypenny told the Journal.

"She was very -- how do I put this? -- haughty and curt,'' Manypenny told The National Journal in a telephone interview. "I tried to state my contentions to her and it was like talking to a brick wall.''

Manypenny lost his case, one of the few in which Bachmann's name appears, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Get the Story:
Bachmann's Tax Attorney Job Was Collector for the IRS (Wall Street Journal 7/11)
Examining Bachmann's Years as an IRS Lawyer (The Atlantic 7/11)