Justice Department Denies Ever Briefing Obama On IRS Targeting -- PatDollard.com, The Washington Times

Excerpted from WASHINGTON TIMES: The Justice Department said Tuesday that nobody briefed President Obama on its investigation of the IRS ahead of his statement Sunday that there was no evidence of corruption in the tax agency’s targeting of tea party groups.

“Generally, we do not brief elected officials,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole told a House committee on Tuesday.

Republicans said that called into question why the president made his statement to Fox News over the weekend that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” at the IRS, given the FBI’s investigation is ongoing and Mr. Obama hasn’t been briefed on it.

“How can he be so sure, when it’s an ongoing investigation?” said Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican and chairman of a key investigative committee looking into the IRS and the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the agency.

Mr. Cole said that was a question only the White House could answer, but repeated that nobody at the Justice Department had briefed Mr. Obama.

On Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Mr. Obama didn’t have any inside information, but rather drew his conclusions from what’s already been reported by the IRS’s internal auditors and in the press.

“Every investigation into this, and everything we’ve learned about this is that this is not something that in any way reached outside of the IRS,” Mr. Carney said.

 (Click link below to read more)
READ MORE Sphere: Related Content