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Ryan to IRS: ‘How can we not conclude that you misled this committee?’
By Joel B. Pollack
17 May 2013 

Former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Acting Commissioner Steven Miller, who only took over in November and resigned this week at President Barack Obama's behest, will testify before the House Ways and Means Committee Friday on his role in targeting Tea Party and conservative groups for audit or excessive review. 

Miller was the first senior IRS official to be disciplined in the scandal, though the problems began before he took over the IRS, and other senior officials were aware of the problem and appear to have misled Congress. 

Though Miller's resignation was reported as a decisive step by the president, his term had been due to expire in early June. Joseph Grant, had been appointed only several days before as Acting Commissioner of the IRS's tax exempt and government entities division, has also resigned. 

Other current and former IRS and Treasury officials have yet to be held accountable, including Lois Lerner, who first acknowledged the scandal on May 10, and former IRS Douglas Shulman, who told Congress in 2012 that Tea Party groups were not being targeted. 

Attorney General Eric Holder announced earlier this week that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would begin a criminal investigation of the IRS. Congressional Republicans have indicated that they will not be satisfied with a DOJ probe or the internal Treasury investigation released earlier this week, but will seek answers independently as they attempt to uncover who was responsible for the abuse and how widespread it has become. There are suspicions that the problem extends beyond the IRS alone and includes other federal agencies. 

While some Democrats have acknowledged the seriousness of the scandal, and President Barack Obama has called the conduct "outrageous," Democratic leaders have attempted to turn the scandal into an argument for overturning the Citizens United case, which enabled political spending by tax-exempt "social welfare" organizations. 

Many senior Democrats, in fact, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had already asked the IRS to investigate such groups, possibly prompting or contributing to the abuse that eventually emerged at the agency. 

Update 12:54 p.m. EDT: Hearing adjourned. 

Update 12:45 p.m. EDT: Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) lectures Miller about how difficult it is for ordinary citizens to face IRS inquiry, reminding him that mismanagement is not an excuse when the IRS comes calling. The gallery breaks out in spontaneous and sustained applause, and the chairman has to call for order. 

Update 12:35 p.m. EDT: Rep. Todd Young catches Miller in a contradiction over his stated reason for the additional scrutiny of conservative groups. The Inspector General's report--which Miller has said he accepts--indicated that there had been no uptick by the time the targeting of conservative groups began. Miller cannot explain the contradiction and says he will have to go back and consider the numbers again. 

Young appears to be referring to a chart on page 3 of the report, which indicates than an uptick only began in fiscal year 2011--which began in October 2010, but the targeting began around March 2010... 

Read the timeline at Breitbart