The court of appeals affirmed a judgment of the district court as modified. The court held that the government may not issue a summons for “other” documents and then apply the foregone conclusion exception to a taxpayer’s Fifth Amendment privilege claim where the government has become aware of the documents through an ongoing investigation.
Cherie and Benjamin Bright were subjects of an Internal Revenue Service investigation concerning past tax liability. The government issued summonses requiring production of documents, including records relating to numerous categories of documents, including two credit card accounts linked to offshore accounts and “any other offshore credit cards.”
