According to the transcripts, one of the interviewees —described as “one Cincinnati IRS employee” — told committee investigators that in March 2010 they became aware that some applications for tax-exempt status referenced the tea party “or other conservative groups.”
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on Sunday released partial transcripts from new interviews with Cincinnati-based IRS employees, arguing they suggest higher-ups in Washington played an active role in the choice to target conservative groups seeking a tax-exemption.
Issa contends that the interviews show the targeting was not solely done by the Cincinnati office and that officials in Washington requested that searches identifying applications by conservative groups be conducted and then asked to see certain files.
“As late as last week, the [Obama] administration was still trying to say there was a few rogue agents from Cincinnati, when in fact the indication is they were directly being ordered from Washington,” Issa (R-Calif.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union” — shortly before the panel released the partial transcripts.
The Oversight panel did not release the full transcripts from the interviews and it did not identify the two IRS employees who spoke with the committee. In addition, the transcripts do not identify who in Washington was involved or the specific office. The question and answers in the transcripts mostly refer to “Washington, D.C.” rather than a specific person or office.
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