At a hearing Wednesday, House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) said his committee has hearned that IRS official Holly Paz was aware of the agency’s political targeting one year ago.
“Just yesterday the committee interviewed Holly Paz, the director of exempt organizations, rulings and agreements, division of the IRS,” Issa said in his opening statement. “While a tremendous amount of attention is centered about the inspector general’s report, or investigation, the committee has learned from Ms. Paz that she in fact participated in an IRS internal investigation that concluded in May of 2012, May 3rd of 2012, and found essentially the same thing that Mr. George found more than a year later.”
“Think about it,” he said. “For more than a year, the IRS knew that it had inappropriately targeted groups of americans based on their political beliefs, and without mentioning it, and in fact without honestly answering questions that were the result of this internal investigation.”
Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said, “I share the Chairman’s very serious questions about why Mr. Shulman and Ms. [Lois] Lerner failed to inform Congress about these problems.”
