IRS Fails To Meet Deadline To Produce White House/IRS Communications On Targeting Conservatives

By Susan Duclos

On May 14, 2013, Chairman Dave Camp and Ranking Member Sander Levin of the House Ways and Means Committee, wrote to the acting commissioner of the IRS, Steve Miller, requesting all documents and communication relating to 13 different areas for the committees investigation into the IRS's confirmed and acknowledged targeting of conservatives.

Letter will be embedded below the post.

The deadline for that information request was May 21, 2013.

The deadline came and went with the IRS not complying in turning over the requested documents, one of which, item 5, was "all documents and communications between the IRS and the White House on this matter."

 According to House Ways and Means Spokeswoman Sarah Swinehart, "The Committee has not received a response to the Camp-Levin letter." Swinehart goes on to say "Chairman Camp expects the IRS to comply and provide full and complete responses to the letter since many of these questions were asked, but went unanswered."

On Wednesday, May 22, 2013,  Lois Lerner,  the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, testified in the committees hearing into the IRS targeting issue, first making a statement proclaiming her innocence of any wrongdoing, then invoking her Fifth Amendment right to not testify.

Congress had also been told multiple times prior to the IRS acknowledgment of conservative targeting, that no targeting had occurred, which according to the Treasury Inspector General's report, were outright lies as the IRS had been aware of the targeting since 2010.

 Via Washington Post:

The IRS made no mention of targeting conservative groups in five separate responses to congressional inquiries between Nov. 18, 2011, and June 15, 2012, according to the TIGTA timeline.

The question of who within the White House knew what and when, has become a serious concern as White House spokesman, Jay Carney, has answered that very question differently,  finally admitting that administration officials were informed but denying that Barack Obama was told what was going on.

The White House on Monday once again added to the list of people who knew about the IRS investigation into its targeting of conservative groups — saying White House chief of staff Denis McDonough had been informed about a month ago.

Press secretary Jay Carney said again that no one had told President Barack Obama ahead of the first news reports: not his top aide McDonough, nor his chief counsel Kathy Ruemmler, nor anyone from the Treasury Department.

Monday’s revelation amounts to the fifth iteration of the Obama administration’s account of events, after initially saying that the White House had first learned of the controversy from the press.

What exactly is in the communications between the IRS and the White House?

What are they hiding by refusing to turn over the documents demanded for the investigation by the House Ways and Means Committee?


Camp-Levin Letter to the IRS below.

Camp Levin 5-4-13 uploaded by Susan Duclos

Full Wake up America coverage on the IRS scandal can be found here.