IRS Higher-Ups Signed Off on Nonprofit Inquiry Letters

Hardly the work of a couple of rogue employees

Additional scrutiny of conservative organizations' activities by the IRS did not solely originate in the agency's Cincinnati office, with requests for information coming from other offices and often bearing the signatures of higher-ups at the agency, according to attorneys representing some of the targeted groups. At least one letter requesting information about one of the groups bears the signature of Lois Lerner, the suspended director of the IRS Exempt Organizations department in Washington.

Jay Sekulow, an attorney representing 27 conservative political advocacy organizations that applied to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status, provided some of the letters to NBC News.  He said the groups' contacts with the IRS prove that the practices went beyond a few "front line" employees in the Cincinnati office, as the IRS has maintained.