IRS scandal

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House Votes to Hold Ex-IRS Official in Contempt

GOP keeps the IRS scandal alive with party-line vote

(Newser) - House Republicans voted today to hold a former Internal Revenue Service official in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify at a pair of committee hearings about her role in the agency's tea party controversy. The House also passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the Justice Department to appoint...

Ex-IRS Honcho Takes Fifth at Hearing, Again

Lois Lerner previously refused to answer questions

(Newser) - The former head of the IRS division that targeted Tea Party groups has once again been brought before Congress—and once again refused to testify, as her lawyer warned would happen. Lois Lerner cited her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination at a hearing today before the House Oversight Committee, the...

IRS Honcho at Heart of Tea Party Scandal Retires

Lois Lerner had been on paid leave

(Newser) - An official at the center of the IRS' tea party scandal is retiring, the agency announced today. Lois Lerner headed the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status when she was placed on paid leave in May. While she was in charge, the agency acknowledged that agents improperly targeted...

IRS Posted 100K Social Security Numbers Online: Watchdog

They belonged to tax-exempt political groups' donors

(Newser) - As if the IRS didn't have enough on its plate . Now, the agency has accidentally posted thousands of Social Security numbers—perhaps 100,000, according to one observer—on a federal website. The IRS confirmed the story, initially spotted by Public.Resource.Org . The IDs were posted on a...

House Panel: IRS' Lerner Waived Rights

Republicans demand she return to testify again

(Newser) - Darrell Issa isn't done with Lois Lerner. Lerner, you might recall, is a central figure in the fizzling IRS scandal, who invoked her Fifth Amendment rights when testifying before Issa's House Oversight Committee. But today the committee voted that Lerner had waived her right not to testify by...

IRS Agent Who Eyed Tea Party Is Republican: Top Dem

Elijah Cummings says partisan politics wasn't involved; Issa begs to differ

(Newser) - The top Democrat investigating the IRS scandal says that an IRS manager who identifies as a conservative Republican fueled the targeting of Tea Party groups, leading Rep. Elijah Cummings to conclude that partisan politics weren't involved and "the case is solved." As Reuters reports, Cummings yesterday unveiled...

IRS Suspends 2 Over Ethically Dubious Party

Meanwhile, Cincinnati workers blame Tea Party scandal on DC

(Newser) - The plot has thickened around not one but both of the scandals embroiling the IRS. In Ridiculous-Conference-Gate news, the agency has suspended—and intends to fire—two managers who violated ethics rules by accepting improper gifts. Among those gifts: $1,162 worth of free food, which was used to throw...

Karl Rove: Bachmann Was Useless to Tea Party
 Karl Rove: 
 Bachmann 
 Was Useless 
 to Tea Party 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Jun 2, 2013 1:03 PM CDT

Karl Rove: Bachmann Was Useless to Tea Party

Sees opportunity for someone else to take the reins

(Newser) - Count Karl Rove as solidly among those not mourning the departure of Michele Bachmann: It will be an opening for the Tea Party,” he said today on This Week, per the National Review . “Michele Bachmann was the chairman of the congressional Tea Party caucus and in that position...

IRS' New Headache: Dance Video

House Republicans salivate over new evidence of abuse

(Newser) - Another day, another cringe-inducing instance of the IRS looking tone deaf: The latest embarrassment comes via the House Ways and Means Committee, which Friday released a video of IRS employees line-dancing to the "Cupid Shuffle"—on the taxpayer dime. The video is apparently what passed for entertainment at...

IRS's Lerner Placed on Leave
 IRS' Lerner Placed on Leave 
May 23, 2013 5:00 PM CDT

IRS' Lerner Placed on Leave

Move comes after her non-testimony on Capitol Hill

(Newser) - The IRS official at the center of the recent scandal has been placed on administrative leave, reports the National Review . Lois Lerner had been in charge of the agency's tax-exempt unit, which singled out conservative groups for added scrutiny. Her immediate boss already has been forced into early retirement...

IRS Honcho Defiant in 9-Minute House Appearance

Lois Lerner says she hasn't done anything wrong, then pleads the 5th

(Newser) - The IRS official at the center of the storm over the agency's targeting of conservative groups told Congress today that she had done nothing wrong in the episode, and then invoked her constitutional right to refuse to answer lawmakers' questions, as expected . In one of the most electric moments...

Hey, Tea Party: How Does It Feel to Be Profiled?

Farhad Manjoo thinks the IRS scandal should teach the right something

(Newser) - Imagine you're an overworked IRS employee, charged with finding, in your massive stack of 501(c)(4) applications, the groups most likely to make electioneering their main focus. Wouldn't it make a little sense to focus on self-proclaimed Tea Party groups? Sure it would. And there's a word for...

Holder: I Wasn't Part of AP Case
 Holder Orders IRS Investigation 
May 14, 2013 1:42 PM CDT

Holder Orders IRS Investigation

He also said he had no involvement in the AP phone records scandal

(Newser) - Eric Holder today said he has launched a criminal investigation into the IRS scandal , and he also disavowed involvement in the AP snooping scandal . On the latter, the attorney general said he'd recused himself from the related leak investigation. In a press conference at the Justice Department today, Holder...

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