An IRS employee from the Cincinnati office who had been tasked with reviewing applications for tax-exempt status from Tea Party and conservative groups was furious that administration officials tried to blame the targeting on “rogue agents” in the office, calling the attacks a “nuclear strike on us.”
According to transcripts Fox News obtained of interviews with Cincinnati office employees that House investigators conducted, agent Elizabeth Hofacre said the idea that rogue agents targeted conservaties “was absurd.” She was “furious” that Lois Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt division who is now on administrative leave, tried to pin the blame on workers in the Cincinnati office.
Hofacre said she was “involved in the processing of these [applications] in 2010.” She claimed “everybody that has been making those statements should know they are inaccurate.”
“I just thought when Lois Lerner dropped that bomb shell, oh, it was Cincinnati’s problem, she thought it would go away, but instead it exploded,” she said.
She also said she had “no autonomy” and had to send extra information to superiors when dealing with Tea Party applications. Hofacre also recalled that “irate taxpayers” continued to call to ask for the status of their applications and it was “demeaning” to answer those phone calls.
Hofacre also claimed she tipped off IRS officials in Washington in 2010 about the targeting when she accidentally sent them some of her findings, which could potentially contradict claims by top IRS officials that have insisted they did not know about the targeting until 2011.
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