BuzzFeed: Report On IRS Scandal Was Repeatedly Delayed

As senior IRS officials were on Capitol Hill today to testify about the agency’s recent scandal, BuzzFeed is reporting that TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration), or the body charged with investigating claims that the IRS was improperly targeting conservatives, delayed the report throughout 2012.

Emails provided by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee show that repeated requests for updates were ignored and the report was repeatedly delayed from September 2012 until just recently.

This new revelation is deeply unsettling. Instead of interim reports or updates being issued squarely in the middle of a presidential campaign, the report was delayed until safely after.

Throughout the day on Capitol Hill, former IRS officials Lois Lerner and Doug Shulman evaded questions on the scandal. Yet, this new report adds many more questions as to what TIGTA and IRS officials knew, when did they know it, and when did they say it publicly.

The IRS unfairly targeting conservative groups is unacceptable and against our Democratic values, but repeatedly delaying this report over the course of 9 months is simply beyond the pale.