Note:CONFIRMING WHAT MOST OF US SUSPECTED. Interviews with IRS employees have established that the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service was engaged in targeting tea party groups and other conservative organizations for unfair levels of scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. Rep. Darrel lssa, chairman of powerful House Committee of Oversight & Government Reform, made that startling announcement on CNN Sunday morning. 'As late as last week,' he said, 'the [Obama] administration was still trying to say the [IRS targeting scandal] was from a few rogue agents in Cincinnati, when in fact the indication is that they were directly being ordered from Washington.'
Flummoxed: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has foudn himself behind the eight-ball as the Obama administration struggles to explain how it could possibly have been in the dark about IRS abuses. On Sunday Issa called him the WHite House's 'paid liar'
IRS employee in bombshell congressional interviews about tea party targeting: 'Washington, DC wanted some cases ... I sent seven'
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Interviews with IRS employees have established that the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service was engaged in targeting tea party groups and other conservative organizations for unfair levels of scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Rep. Darrel lssa, chairman of powerful House Committee of Oversight and Government Reform, made that startling announcement on CNN Sunday morning.
'As late as last week,' he said, 'the [Obama] administration was still trying to say the [IRS targeting scandal] was from a few rogue agents in Cincinnati, when in fact the indication is that they were directly being ordered from Washington.'
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Issa told CNN's Candy Crowley that his staff has interviewed IRS agents from the agency's Cincinnati office who say Washington, DC headquarters was calling the shots
Tea party activists demonstrated nationwide against the Internal Revenue Service on May 21. These protesters were in West Palm Beach, Florida
A committee spokesman sent MailOnline partial transcripts of two interviews with unnamed IRS workers about the agency's actions in early 2010, on whose testimony Issa based his bombshell statement.
One of those interviewees said it was 'impossible' for a few IRS agents to have orchestrated such widespread partisan targeting on their own.
'Did [your supervisor] give you any indication of the need for the search [for tea party groups], any more context?' one IRS witness was asked in a closed-door interview.
'He told me that Washington, D.C., wanted some cases,' came the reply.
The employee, who said he or she was evaluating 40 such applications for tax-exempt status from conservative organizations at the time, said 'some went to Washington. D.C. ... I sent seven.'
CNN's Crowley heard new information about interviews that Issa's spokesman explained to MailOnline, along with helpful portions of transcripts
House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa has become the lead bulldog on the IRS matter, holding hearings and supervising interviews of a reported 88 different employees from the agency's Cincinnati, Ohio office where tax-exempt applications are generally handled