Investigation Of IRS Targeting Tea Party Completed A Year Ago, Hid From Congress

Hmmmm….I wonder why?

Could it be the 2012 election?

Nah…..couldn’t be:

E-mails between staff members of the House Oversight Committee and the office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) suggest that the findings of a report on IRS targeting of conservative groups were initially scheduled to be released in September 2012, before the election. It was not formally released until May 14, 2013.

“You mentioned your report would be ready in September. Any update for us?” a committee staff member wrote a TITGA employee on September 24, 2012. The employee responded that same day, explaining that “field work for this audit is still on going.”

Committee staff followed up on December 18, 2012, but the TITGA employee did not reply until December 20 — “Sorry for the delayed response. I was studying for a final,” the employee wrote in an e-mail. “We will be able to offer a substantive briefing, i.e., the facts, findings, recommendations, and outcomes by March.”

Isn’t that cute…studying for final.

But wait, they are mandated to give “incremental” updates it appears:

“You have a responsibility to keep us continually, and according to statue, equally informed,” Issa said. “In this case, it appears you did not. Would you agree with that?”

“No actually,” George answered, explaining that he should not brief Congress until all the information had been analyzed and a solid, correct conclusion has been made. “There are established procedures for conducting an audit. … It would be impractical to give you partial information which might not be accurate. It would be counterproductive, sir, if we were to do that.”

But Issa said, “That is not the statute.”

Issa is referring to part of the Inspector General Act that requires watchdogs to report serious problems to Congress through the head of an agency within seven days. It’s known as the “seven-day rule” — but it’s often used sparingly.

So they waited for a year when they already knew pretty much everything about this scandal:

‘Just yesterday the committee interviewed Holly Paz, the director of exempt organizations, rulings and agreements, division of the IRS,’ Issa said. ‘While a tremendous amount of attention is centered about the Inspector General’s report, or investigation, the committee has learned from Ms. Paz that she in fact participated in an IRS internal investigation that concluded in May of 2012 – May 3 of 2012 – and found essentially the same thing that Mr. George found more than a year later.’

‘Think about it,’ he continued: ‘For more than a year, the IRS knew that it had inappropriately targeted groups of Americans based on their political beliefs, and without mentioning it, and in fact without honestly answering questions that were the result of this internal investigation.’

But everything is safe now….the election is over, Obama won.

Meanwhile our “unbiased” media is hard at work:

That was yesterday. Today? Same talking points by those stellar journalists:

Now we know damn well where these talking points came from so it looks like Obama and pals have decided that Lerner will be the fall guy. Chop her head off, tell the world it was just some rogue “overworked” agents (so overworked they did MORE work by asking a million intrusive questions of conservative groups), and the scandal will go away.

Keep walking….nothing to see here.

Curt

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