House GOP accuses Obama aide of obstructing IRS investigation

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House GOP accuses Obama aide of obstructing IRS investigation

House Republicans on Tuesday accused the IRS and President Obama’s hand-picked new leader of the agency of trying to “delay, frustrate, impede and obstruct” their investigation into abuses of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, and pointedly warned that the tax agency could be breaking the law.

The two top investigators in the House sent a letter to acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel, whom Mr. Obama tapped to get a grip on the troubled agency, saying the IRS has turned over less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the documents the oversight committee wants to see. The exact number is 0.019 percent of relevant documents.

In one case, an IRS manager wanted to turn over documents but the IRSrefused to let her do so, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California and committee memberRep. Jim Jordan of Ohio wrote in a letter to Mr. Werfel. And they said that the documents that have been sent over are so messy and full of redactions that it appears the IRS is trying to stall Congress.

“Obstructing a congressional investigation is a crime,” the two men wrote in their letter. “The systematic manner in which the IRS has attempted to delay, frustrate, impede and obstruct the committee’s investigation raises serious concerns about your commitment to full and unfettered congressional oversight.”

The accusations come on a day when another House panel, the Ways and Means Committee, released an analysis showing that conservative groups faced more probing questions than did liberal groups applying for the same tax-exempt status.

Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, Michigan Republican, said conservative groups were asked three times as many questions, and were less than half as likely to get approval from the IRS.

Like the oversight committee, Mr. Camp said his investigators are also waiting on the IRS to turn over more information.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg. We have received less than 3 percent of the documents responsive to the investigation,” he said.

On Monday, Mr. Issa and Mr. Jordan asked for a broader investigation into abuses at the IRS, saying they believe the agency not only went after conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status but may have targeted groups that had been approved years earlier, putting them through audits and asking inappropriate probing questions.

The two lawmakers said the documents the IRS has turned over often have portions blacked out well beyond what would be necessary to protect taxpayer information.

Before being sent to the IRS, Mr. Werfel was a top official at Mr. Obama’s budget office in the White House.

He was deployed to the tax agency after the previous acting commissioner resigned in the days after the agency acknowledged it improperly targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny in theirapplications for tax-exempt status.

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