U.S. Republican targets IRS employees in Tea Party probe

By Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republicans probing the Internal Revenue Service want to question five employees about the tax agency's targeting of the Tea Party and other conservative groups, an effort that a key lawmaker said on Wednesday was part of a fact-finding mission.

"It appears that a number of IRS employees played key roles in carrying out the improper scrutiny," Republican Representative Darrell Issa, head of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a letter to the IRS requesting transcribed interviews with the employees.

Issa did not elaborate on why these employees were chosen and it remains unclear if they engaged in any improper activity. The IRS has not released names of employees who were involved in an effort launched in 2010 in Cincinnati to target Tea Party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny as they sought tax-exempt status.

The agency has said it will cooperate with any inquiries, but officials were not immediately available to comment on Issa's request or the employees listed.

The targeting effort eventually came to the knowledge of top IRS officials in Washington, one of whom acknowledged it and apologized publicly last Friday. Faced with a widening scandal, President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday that the acting director of the IRS, Steven Miller, would resign.

In a letter to employees, Miller praised the agency's work and said he was stepping down to try to restore confidence in the agency.

FIVE IRS EMPLOYEES NAMED

One of the employees sought by Issa in his letter is Holly Paz, the Washington-based director of rulings and agreements for the tax exempt division, who contributed at least $2,000 to the Obama Victory Fund in 2008, according to federal election records. In 2012 she announced at a tax conference steps the IRS was taking to question large tax-exempt groups about their political activities.

Paz said at the time that the IRS was looking at whether such groups were complying with the law, which does not allow exemptions for groups focused on political activities, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing her comments at the conference. Paz didn't name any specific groups.

The Journal named Crossroads GPS, the giant organizing committee co-founded by Republican operative Karl Rove, as one group the IRS intended to examine. A U.S. senator had asked the IRS to conduct an inquiry. Priorities USA, a rival started by Obama aides, is another of the biggest of these groups.

Paz could not be reached for comment.

Another employee Issa wants to question is Greg Muthert, who told Reuters he is an IRS agent in the Cincinnati office with 28 years of service.

Muthert declined to elaborate on his role with the IRS and to what extent, if any, he was involved in the controversial flagging of certain groups. He defended the work of the Cincinnati office.

"I don't know what to think. Something's wrong, but I'm going to speak my piece one time, and that's it," he said.

Issa also asked to speak with Joseph Herr. A Tea Party group, the Ohio Liberty Coalition, told Reuters that Herr handled its application for tax-exempt status and asked questions the group considered inappropriate. It was not clear why they were deemed inappropriate by the group.

Some Tea Party groups complained to members of Congress about the extensive questioning from the IRS. In letters the groups had complained that the IRS was seeking lists of donors and many documents.

Herr could not be reached for comment at his home in Cincinnati.

The Clear Lake Tea Party of Texas publicly complained about IRS employee cited in Issa's letter, Elizabeth Hofacre, who handled the group's application. Hofacre could not be reached for comment.

Mary Huls, president of the Clear Lake Tea Party in Texas, told Reuters her group received a letter from Hofacre in which the IRS requested 19 additional questions. Huls declined to elaborate.

"They were personal and they didn't seem to have too much bearing on whether or not we could be tax exempt," Huls said.

The group stopped the process "because then we thought that we would lose our rights of free speech," Huls said.

Hofacre could not be reached for comment.

The fifth employee listed in the letter is John Shafer, whose position was unknown and who could not be located.

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria, Nick Carey, Kevin Drawbaugh, Bob Driehaus and Kim Dixon.; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson, Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-republican-targets-irs-employees-tea-party-probe-044915275.html

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