It has already been confirmed that the IRS targeting of conservatives, including Tea Party, Patriot, 9/12, pro-Israel, pro-life groups, and donors to GOP groups were audited, but now a CNN exclusive reports that documents are being collected from 88 different employees, contradicting their previous assertions as well as the Inspector General's report which claimed only "lower level" employees were involved.The lower level employee claim had already been blown out of the water, so to speak, when cover letters, dated May 2013, were released showing the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, Lois Lerner's signature, demanding the additional information previous asked of the targeted groups.
Via CNN:
The Internal Revenue Service has told House GOP investigators they have identified 88 IRS employees who may have documents relevant to the congressional investigation into targeting of conservative groups, according to a congressional source familiar with the investigation.
The IRS asked these employees to preserve all the "responsive documents" on their computers, and it has been in the process of collecting it all to comply with congressional requests for information. The IRS missed its May 21st deadline to turn over documents to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Not only did they miss the House deadline, but as of Friday afternoon, the IRS has also missed the Senate deadline for information requested nearly two weeks ago.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) declined Friday afternoon to meet a Senate Finance Committee deadline for answering detailed questions about the origins of the IRS scandal. The questions had been submitted jointly nearly two weeks ago by Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
In a joint statement to Breitbart News, Baucus and Hatch said:
“It’s disappointing that the IRS failed to produce any of the documents requested by the Committee.
"This is an agency that revolves around making the American taxpayer meet hard deadlines each and every year when they file their taxes, oftentimes penalizing those that are late.
“The IRS needs to do much better.”
If the IRS abuses of power against Obama's political foes aren't enough, The Hill reports on lavish spending abuses that have come to light during the investigation.
The new acting IRS chief acknowledged Friday that an upcoming audit would find improper spending at an agency conference, opening up a new trouble spot for an agency already embattled over its treatment of Tea Party groups.
Danny Werfel, the acting commissioner, said that the conference occurred in 2010, labeling it an “unfortunate vestige” from a time before the agency tightened its belt.
“While there were legitimate reasons for holding the meeting, many of the expenses associated with it were inappropriate and should not have occurred,” Werfel said in a statement.
Polling, from a variety of organizations show a plurality of Americans (49%) feel that the Obama administration was directly involved in the decision to target conservatives, 76 percent of Americans, which include 63 percent of Democrats, think a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate the IRS abuses in targeting conservatives and 57 percent want IRS offenders either jailed or fired.
Full Wake up America coverage on the IRS scandal can be found here.
