An IRS supervisor working in Washington told congressional investigators that she personally reviewed applications from groups for tax-exempt status, in testimony that appears to show the agency's scrutiny of conservative groups extended beyond the confines of the office in Cincinnati.
The chairman of a key House committee on Thursday demanded that the State Department's office of inspector general explain passages in internal documents that refer to pressure from department higher-ups to quash investigations into suspected criminal activity — including the solicitation of prostitutes, illegal drug activity and sexual assault — by U.S. diplomatic personnel overseas.
Rep. Steve Stockman is revisiting a troublesome matter that recently riveted public attention, namely, the IRS targeting of conservative groups. "This case must be investigated fully, given admitted wrongdoing by the IRS, its potentially criminal implications and revelations the White House has been less than honest about what they knew and when," he says.
Rep. Darrell E. Issa blasted Rep. Elijah E. Cummings on Sunday after the latter asserted that the Internal Revenue Service scandal involving the targeting of conservatives had been "solved."
Two employees from the Internal Revenue Service's Cincinnati office involved in the targeting of conservative groups have met with House investigators, but exactly what was learned from those interviews varies greatly depending on which lawmaker you ask — and which excerpts each has chosen to release to the public.
Sequestration was supposed to have cut government to the bone. The White House canceled tours for schoolchildren and ordered the U.S. Navy to ground the Blue Angels in a public display of sackcloth and ashes.
As congressional Republicans' chief investigator, Rep. Darrell E. Issa is following in the footsteps of his predecessors at the helm of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who often used the post to keep the pressure on presidents of the opposite party.
Among the 140 participants at the Bilderberg Conference that begins Thursday in the spectacular Grove Hotel, some 20 miles northwest of London: American Enterprise Institute fellow Richard Perle, former CIA Director David H. Petraeus, former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, former Treasury secretaries Timothy F. Geithner and Robert Rubin, Washington Post CEO Donald Graham, Stratfor geopolitical analyst Robert Kaplan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and The Economist Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.
The new Internal Revenue Service chief said Monday that his agency broke trust with the American people, and he vowed a speedy investigation to expose who approved the program that led to conservative groups being subjected to unwarranted questions while finding out if any other offices have engaged in similar political targeting.
Two weeks before news broke that the IRS had targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny of their tax-exempt applications, a moderate GOP organization received word it was being audited — a move its organizers said suggests the tax agency's scrutiny included non-tea party political groups.
President Obama was sent multiple letters that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin and Sen. John McCain was accused of meeting with kidnappers during his trip to Syria. On the international stage, a new respiratory virus sweeping the Middle East has been dubbed 'a threat to the entire world' by the World Health Organization. Here’s a recap, or wrap, of the week that was from The Washington Times.
House Republicans' chief investigator issued a subpoena Tuesday for State Department documents that he said would shed light on how the administration wrote the "talking points" that were used to give a wrong impression of the September terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Three days of hearings have shown that IRS scrutiny of conservative organizations extended beyond a few rogue employees in Cincinnati, that the agency staged its announcement of the bad news to try to limit the damage, and that the White House knew more, and knew it earlier, than it first admitted.
The woman at the center of the IRS scandal refused to testify to Congress on Wednesday, but House Republicans said Lois Lerner botched her attempt to invoke her right against self-incrimination and said they likely will force her to come back and explain why the agency targeted conservative political groups.
Former IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman's testimony that he deliberately kept himself in the dark about the tax service's brewing scandal runs counter to the responsibilities of agency heads regardless of whether they are political appointees, some government analysts said.
But Mr. Issa, California Republican, wrote in a letter to Mr. Cummings that "if a full transcript were released, it would serve as a road map of the Committee's investigation."
IRS supervisor in D.C. admits to overseeing tea party targeting →
"My gut tells me that too many people knew this wrongdoing was going on before the election, and at least by some sort of convenient, benign neglect, allowed it to go on through the election," he said last week. "I'm not making any allegations as to motive, that they set out to do it, but certainly people knew it was happening."
Issa urged to release IRS interviews; Democrat Cummings: 'Wrap this up and move on' →
