Cummings Backtracks: IRS Case Not Solved

According to triumphant leftists in the media, Rep. Elijah Cummings check-mated Chairman Issa last weekend when he asserted that the IRS investigation was “solved”. Cummings was”calling Issa’s bluff” regarding witness testimony on the scandal, by demanding that Issa release the full transcripts of testimony given to the committee.

On Sunday, Cummings told CNN’s Candy Crowley “the case is solved and if it were up to me, I would wrap this case up and move on.”

(It should be noted that Issa never stated that the White House was involved in the decision to target conservative groups.  He had suggested that the targeting was being directed from IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C.)

Now,  Cummings is backing away from his assertion that the investigation into the IRS case is “solved”.   

He told Politico on Wednesday that what he was trying to argue was that — “contrary to some GOP comments — the investigation has proven the Obama administration didn’t order the IRS to target conservative groups applying for a tax exemption.”

“The witch hunt needs to end,” said Cummings, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “What I meant was the witch hunt.”

Cummings said the investigation isn’t over and he’s open to interviewing additional Cincinnati-based IRS employees and holding more hearings on the scandal.

In one one of the transcripts Cummings released,  John Shafer, a “conservative Republican” IRS manager, was asked if the decision to screen Tea Party groups was made with the goal of “targeting of the president’s political enemies.”

The manager responded, “I do not believe that the screening of these cases had anything to do other than consistency and identifying issues that needed to have further development.”

When asked if he believed that anyone in the White House was involved, he answered, “I have no reason to believe that.”

Issa  released a hard-hitting statement on Tuesday declaring that the IRS manager’s interview didn’t take away from other interviews in which employees said Washington was involved. He also accused Cummings of engaging in a now familiar pattern of obstruction. 

As with other Committee investigations, your letter and public comments illustrate your unwillingness to conduct oversight that calls into question the actions and assertions of the Administration. During the Committee’ s investigation of the ATF’s flawed Operation Fast and Furious, you sent several letters intended to frustrate the Committee’s ability to uncover information about the circumstances surrounding the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. 

During the Committee’s investigation into the Administration’s failed green energy programs, you sent a letter objecting 10 the Committee’s manner of obtaining information from key Department of Energy officials. As in those cases, your obstructionist tactics with respect to the IRS investigation do not advance the investigative interests of the Committee in any meaningful way.

Your public comments that “the case is solved” and that you would “wrap this case up and move on” stand in stark contrast to the facts’. The Committee has just begun its investigation. The Committee has reviewed only a small fraction of responsive documents from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and has yet to receive any substantive documents from the IRS. The Committee has interviewed only four employees from the IRS ‘s Cincinnati office and only one employee from the IRS’s Washington, D.C. office. 

Your assertions, based on such limited information, are incredibly irresponsible. The Committee must –and will –conduct an exhaustive investigation. The American people demand and deserve nothing less. 

Further, contrary to your public comments that IRS employee John Shafer’s statements “go a long way to … showing that the White House was not involved in this.  Mr. Shafer in fact testified that he had no personal knowledge “whatsoever” about the motivations of Washington officials involved in the Tea Party cases. Indeed, Mr. Shafer testified that he had no personal involvement with the Tea Party applications after they were identified by IRS screeners as ”Tea Party” cases and forwarded to Washington, D.C. for additional scrutiny. 

If you were truly committed to pursuing the truth, you would not have omitted this pertinent piece of information before publicly absolving the IRS. 

There is still much that we do not know about how and why certain applications for tax exempt status were denied, delayed, or otherwise received heightened scrutiny from the IRS. The Committee has received conflicting information about the origins of that scrutiny; the Committee does not know why applications from Tea Party groups experienced significant processing delays after they were identified; the Committee does not know why the IRS sent these groups inappropriate and intrusive information request letters; and the Committee does not know why senior IRS officials misled and failed to inform Congress about these serious problems in response to direct questions from Committee Members and staff. 

These are just some of the important questions that are still unanswered. If the Committee proceeded as you suggest, they would remain unanswered. Failing to explore these questions does not “restore trust … in our Committee. To the contrary, ignoring these questions would erode public confidence that the Committee thoroughly investigates matters of serious concern. 

Your decision to publicly announce that the investigation should wrap up was irresponsible, but not surprising. However, your push to release entire transcripts from witness interviews while the investigation remains active was reckless and threatened to undermine the integrity of the Committee’s investigation. 

Meanwhile, the Hill reported this, today:

The IRS’s singling out of conservative groups did not originate in Cincinnati, the House Republican in charge of tax policy said Wednesday.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said bipartisan interviews conducted by House investigators had found out that the targeting did not occur in the IRS offices in Ohio that have been at the center of the story.

But the Michigan Republican did not elaborate much further and said there were still plenty of unanswered questions about the IRS’s treatment of Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status.

“We know it didn’t originate in Cincinnati,” Camp said after speaking at an event hosted by Baker Hostetler and the Federal Policy Group. “We still don’t know who did originate this.”