The Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says the Cincinnati IRS agents who targeted Tea Party groups were "being directly ordered from Washington."
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., released excerpts of investigative interviews with IRS employees, saying the reports show the employees were directed by Washington to subject conservatives groups to tough scrutiny.
"The president's spokesperson is saying whatever is convenient at the time and the story changes," the Republican lawmaker said in a weekend interview with CNN.
"What we have is people coming in to transcribed interviews," he continued. "They're saying under penalty of crimes that certain things are true. We have subpoenaed documents that would support that, that they say, emails that went back and forth."
The top Democrat on the House panel, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., has contested Issa's claims. Cummings says none of the employees interviewed have identified an IRS official in Washington as ordering the targeting.
Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service is at the center of another spending scandal.
A government watchdog group says the IRS wasted about $50 million on 220 conferences between 2010 and 2012. The report included $4 million for an August 2010 gathering in Anaheim, California.