Published on Jul 18, 2013
Carter Hull, a veteran IRS official with nearly 50 years of service, testified today that the IRS Office of Chief Counsel was involved in the controversial program. This is the first time there has been direct public confirmation that Washington was involved wiin the targeting of Tea Party groups. Previously, we awere all led to believe that it was just a couple of rogue agents and that any notion of Washington involvement was just pure craziness.
Hull specifically said he was told to forward documents to an adviser for embattled IRS official Lois Lerner -- who first revealed the targeting of Tea Party groups and has since refused to answer lawmakers' questions. But Hull said he was then told to send documents to the Office of Chief Counsel for their review -- which is led by political appointee William Wilkins.
At an August 2011 meeting, Hull said, someone from the chief counsel's office said additional information was needed from Tea Party applicants that Hull was dealing with, and that a second letter should be sent out requesting more information.
Hull said during his testimony that the multi-level layer of review was "unusual." And he said the Cincinnati office was stuck on applications because he, too, was waiting for guidance from the chief counsel's office.
"I was waiting for word from chief counsel as to how to proceed," Hull said.
Hull repeatedly said that he was not told specifically to hold up applications. But he confirmed that after meeting with the chief counsel's office, applications were eventually taken out of his control and forwarded on for "further review," which he said was "rare."
Hofacre testified that she was "deeply offended" when senior government officials tried to blame the targeting scandal on a handful of supposedly rogue employees in the Ohio office.
"Personally, I felt like it was a nuclear strike. I felt they were blaming us," she said.
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