Democrats Downplay D.C. Role in IRS Targeting of Conservatives

Keep trying, folks

Leaders on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are escalating the battle over the investigation into the IRS tea party targeting scandal.

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the panel's top Democrat, released hundreds of pages of transcripts today of an interview the committee conducted with a self-described "conservative Republican" IRS nonprofit screening manager in Cincinnati who says one of his employees was the first to single out a tea party group applying for a tax exemption. …

The latest transcripts were released on the same day that a CNN/ORC International survey found that 47 percent of Americans believe "senior White House officials" ordered the IRS to single out conservative groups — a 10 percent increase from last month.

Investigators have found no evidence suggesting the Obama administration was in any way involved, though interviews with other Cincinnati employees shared with POLITICO suggest the IRS headquarters played a central role in carrying out the targeting after it began — contrary to what the IRS argued when the scandal erupted last month.