EXCLUSIVE: IRS Org Chart Puts Ingram, Lerner at Center of Power

EXCLUSIVE: IRS Org Chart Puts Ingram, Lerner at Center of Power

An official Internal Revenue Service (IRS) organizational chart of the Tax Exempt & Government Entities division from February 2011 offers a more complete picture of the authority Lois Lerner–the now-removed IRS director of the tax-exempt unit–and Sarah Hall Ingram–presently tasked with overseeing the implementation of Obamacare–held as the IRS scheme to politically target conservative groups was hatched.

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As the above chart taken from an official IRS PowerPoint presentation confirms, Lois Lerner, who yesterday pleaded the fifth and refused to answer questions, was second only to Deputy Commissioner Joseph H. Grant and Commissioner Sarah Hall Ingram during the period when the IRS’s political targeting of conservative groups began.

The organizational chart also makes it clear that Determination Manager Cindy Thomas reported directly to Acting Director of Rulings and Agreements Holly O. Paz, who then reported to Lois Lerner. According to a Cincinnati Fox 19 report, Cindy Thomas was “the person who signed off on that release” for the confidential tax documents of conservative organizations to be sent to progressive journalism group ProPublica. 

On Wednesday, Lerner, who helped devise the scheme to plant a question with tax lawyer Celia Roady at a conference to break news of the IRS scandal, said she was responsible for overseeing some 900 employees. 

In total, as of the end of 2012, the IRS employed 97,717 workers.

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