The Treasury Department’s inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was auditing the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of politically active organizations seeking tax exemptions, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year. At the first Congressional hearing into the I.R.S. scandal, J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that he informed the Treasury’s general counsel of his audit on June 4, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin “shortly thereafter.”
the inspector general’s testimony will most likely fuel efforts by Congressional Republicans to show that Obama administration officials knew of efforts to single out conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status for additional scrutiny, but did not reveal that knowledge during President Obama’s re-election campaign.
Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, who joined the Republican ticket as the vice-presidential candidate later in the year, said, “That raises a big question.”
Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the House Ways and Means chairman, said in opening the hearing, “This appears to be just the latest example of a culture of cover-ups — and political intimidation — in this administration. It seems like the truth is hidden from the American people just long enough to make it through an election.”
