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IRS official placed on leave after hearing performance

UPDATED 8:21 AM EDT, May 25, 2013 | By Steven Olemacher

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, Lois Lerner was replaced Thursday as director of the Internal Revenue Service division that oversaw agents who targeted tea party groups.

Danny Werfel, the agency's new acting commissioner, told IRS employees in an email that he had selected a new acting head of the division, staying within the IRS to find new leadership.

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UPDATED 6:31 AM EDT, May 23, 2013

Weiner's comeback

NEW YORK (AP) — However Anthony Weiner does when the polls close, he's certain to add drama to the most competitive New York City mayor's race in more than a decade.

As the scandal-lashed former congressman got ready for a first round of campaign events Thursday, his arrival in the race was being met with a mix of polite greetings, blowback and bring-it-on bravado from his now-rivals. Average New Yorkers were at no loss for opinions, either.

Weiner said he knows his run will be an uphill one, but he wants to bring his ideas into the race — and win.

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UPDATED 6:19 AM EDT, May 23, 2013

GOP questions IRS scrutiny of anti-abortion groups

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — When a small anti-abortion group in Iowa sought nonprofit status, the Internal Revenue Service asked its board to promise not to organize protests outside Planned Parenthood and demanded to know how its prayer meetings and protest signs were educational.

Although the Coalition for Life of Iowa's application was ultimately approved in 2009, the tax collection agency's treatment of that and other anti-abortion groups has gotten new attention in the wake of an ongoing scandal over the alleged targeting of conservative groups.

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UPDATED 6:20 AM EDT, May 23, 2013

Carney: Criticism of IRS response 'legitimate'

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's spokesman says the White House is facing "legitimate criticisms" for its shifting accounts about who knew what about the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups, and when they knew it.

Press secretary Jay Carney's acknowledgement Wednesday was an attempt to stem a growing narrative that the White House has bungled its response to the IRS controversy, even though the White House appears to have had no direct role in the agency's targeting of conservative political groups.

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UPDATED 17:27 PM EDT, May 22, 2013

Taking the Fifth

The IRS official who oversees the office that processes applications for tax-exempt status refused to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform committee Wednesday, invoking her Fifth-Amendment rights.

"I have done nothing wrong," Lois Lerner told the committee at the latest hearing on the targeting of conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. "I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations and I have not provided false information to this or any other committee."

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UPDATED 21:45 PM EDT, May 21, 2013

IRS official to take the Fifth at House hearing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Summoned by Congress, a key figure in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups plans to invoke her constitutional right against self-incrimination and decline to testify at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Lois Lerner heads the IRS division that singled out conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns. She was subpoenaed to testify Wednesday before the House oversight committee.

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UPDATED 21:41 PM EDT, May 21, 2013

Lew: IRS actions "unacceptable and inexcusable"

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups was "unacceptable and inexcusable" and he has directed the agency's acting director to hold people accountable.

Lew told the Senate Banking Committee that he has also asked acting director Daniel Werfel to fix any flaws in management of the IRS to make sure there is no recurrence of the problems.

An inspector general's report released May 15 found that IRS employees had inappropriately targeted conservative political groups.

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UPDATED 8:40 AM EDT, May 22, 2013

What IRS Officials Knew

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former head of the Internal Revenue Service said he first learned in the spring of 2012 — in the heat of the presidential campaign — that agents had improperly targeted political groups that vehemently opposed President Barack Obama's policies.

But, former Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Tuesday, he didn't tell higher ups in the Treasury Department and he didn't tell members of Congress.

And he wouldn't apologize for it.

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UPDATED 7:46 AM EDT, May 21, 2013

Former IRS commissioner heads to Hill amid scandal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are getting their first chance to question the former head of the Internal Revenue Service, the man who ran the agency when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups.

Some of the questions on Tuesday will be direct: What did you know, and when did you know it?

They also want to know why former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman didn't tell Congress that agents had been singling out conservative political groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status — even after he was briefed.

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UPDATED 18:03 PM EDT, May 21, 2013

IRS Loop-In

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior advisers knew in late April that an impending report was likely to say the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups, President Barack Obama's spokesman disclosed Monday, expanding the circle of top officials who knew of the audit beyond those named earlier.

But McDonough and the other advisers did not tell Obama, leaving him to learn about the politically perilous results of the internal investigation from news reports nearly three weeks later, officials said.

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