Treasury Began Investigating IRS in 2012

Administration officials were aware of problems prior to election

The Treasury Department's inspector general told senior Treasury officials in June 2012 he was auditing the Internal Revenue Service's screening of politically active organizations seeking tax exemptions, disclosing for the first time on Friday that Obama administration officials were aware of the matter during the presidential campaign year.

At the first Congressional hearing into the I.R.S. scandal, J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that he informed the Treasury's general counsel of his audit on June 4, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin "shortly thereafter."