Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell wants answers on use of tax records

Delaware tax officials are defending their actions amid complaints from former U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell that her personal tax information may have been misused.

O’Donnell says she was told by a Treasury Department agent in January that her tax records may have been improperly accessed by a Delaware government official.

State revenue director Patrick Carter said Friday that he spoke to a Treasury Department official in December about a state investigator’s access of federal tax records in March 2010. Carter described the incident as routine, and that state officials do not believe there was any impropriety.

According to Carter, the tax records in question were reviewed on or after March 20, 2010, the same day an article about O’Donnell’s financial problems appeared in a Wilmington newspaper.