Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) honed in on evasive answers by former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing into the IRS scandal Wednesday.
Shulman refused to answer “yes” or “no” when Gowdy asked him whether he had taken any action to investigate or stop the targeting of conservative groups when he was made aware of it in May 2012.
Instead of answering, Shulman claimed that he had been satisfied that the Inspector General was investigating, and said that he had merely been following practices left in place by his predecessor at the IRS. An angry Gowdy closed his questioning by directing that the record reflect a “no” answer for Shulman.
Several other members of the committee, from both parties, pressed Shulman on why he had not contacted Congress to correct his March 2012 testimony that there had been no targeting when he learned otherwise.
Shulman repeated that he was “comfortable” with his decision not to correct the record on his own. Earlier, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) described Shulman’s conduct as a lie of omission: “You misled Congress!” he said.
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