Top White House Lawyer Learned of IRS Inquiry in April

White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was told last month that a Treasury Department inspector general had concluded an audit on the Internal Revenue Service’s screening of conservative organizations, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal write.

Republican lawmakers investigating the IRS scandal have sought to determine when senior administration officials learned of the tax agency’s heightened scrutiny of Tea Party and other groups seeking 501(c)(4) nonprofit status. President Obama has said he learned of the matter from media reports earlier this month.

Some former White House officials said Ms. Ruemmler acted appropriately in not informing the president about the IRS audit, so as to avoid the appearance of administration meddling in an independent inquiry.

According to other reports by The New York Times citing former employees, tax attorneys, and IRS documents, the IRS office in Cincinnati responsible for screening 501(c)(4) applications was chronically understaffed and ill-equipped to deal with a large increase in such submissions in 2010 and 2011, many of them from conservative groups.

See the latest Chronicle of Philanthropy coverage of the IRS scandal.