FOXNews.com: IRS SCANDAL FALLOUT: Officials Get Senate Grilling On Tea Party Targeting

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IRS SCANDAL FALLOUT: Officials Get Senate Grilling On Tea Party Targeting May 21st 2013, 15:34 Senate lawmakers took their turn Tuesday grilling IRS officials over the agency's targeting of conservative groups, as they called them to account for a "scandal" they say has undermined the public's trust in government.  "The IRS abandoned good judgment and lost the public's trust," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.  Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the top Republican on the panel, made clear he would question the witnesses on what he called "one of the most disturbing elements" of the controversy -- that officials withheld information about it last year. He alleged that they didn't decide to come clean until an investigative report was imminent and "their hand was forced."  "Were they simply holding out until after the election?" Hatch asked.  It was the first time lawmakers were able to question the man who ran the IRS when agents were improperly targeting Tea Party groups. The Senate Finance Committee was also hearing from outgoing commissioner Steven Miller and Inspector General J. Russell George.  Shulman will face scrutiny, after having told a House committee in March 2012 there was "absolutely no targeting" by the IRS of conservative organizations. It's one of several denials -- or omissions -- by top IRS officials over the past couple years that some lawmakers have suggested were misleading.  The lawmakers are expected to ask Shulman why he 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 on the investigation later that year.  Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, left the IRS in November when his five-year term ended.  The Senate Finance Committee has also launched a bipartisan investigation into the IRS practice.  The hearing comes after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the president's counsel was told on April 24 about the preliminary findings of an IRS audit that showed tax officials unfairly targeted Tea Party groups.  Carney had previously said that White House counsel did not have any details about the IRS probe and was given a generic heads up that one was being conducted.  Senior legal counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was told about the audit on April 24, Carney said Monday. She then told Denis McDonough, Obama's chief of staff and other senior officials about the investigation.  "It was the judgment of counsel this is not a matter she should convey to the president," Carney said.  Carney also said while Ruemmler knew the subject of the investigation and potential findings, they were not given a draft of the report and understood details could change.  Ahead of the hearing, Baucus and Hatch sent a letter to the IRS Monday, asking for an explanation. The letter included 41 separate requests for information. They gave the IRS until May 31 to respond.  The two senators said the IRS had not been forthcoming about the issue in the past.  "Targeting applicants for tax-exempt status using political labels threatens to undermine the public's trust in the IRS," Baucus and Hatch wrote. "Lack of candor in advising the Senate of this practice is equally troubling."  For more than a year, from 2011 through the 2012 election, members of Congress repeatedly asked Shulman about complaints from Tea Party groups that they were being harassed by the IRS.  Shulman's responses, usually relayed by a deputy, did not acknowledge that agents had ever targeted Tea Party groups for special scrutiny. At a congressional hearing March 22, 2012, Shulman was adamant in his denials.  "There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman said at the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing.  The IRS has said Shulman did not know about the targeting at the time of the hearing.  The agency's inspector general says he told Shulman on May 30, 2012, that his office was auditing the way applications for tax-exempt status were being handled, in part because of complaints from conservative groups. However, the inspector general, J. Russell George, said he did not reveal the results of his investigation.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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