The White House has acknowledged top administration lawyers knew about alarming activity at the Internal Revenue Service well before President Obama was informed. The IRS has acknowledged over the past week that right-wing groups received extra scrutiny in their bid for tax-exempt status. The Office of the White House Counsel said it received word of the IRS controversy over two weeks before Obama was finally made aware earlier this month. Testifying before Congress just two days after he was forced to resign, acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller apologized but said the additional scrutiny of right-wing groups was not politically motivated.

Steven Miller: “As acting commissioner, I want to apologize on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service for the mistakes that we made and the poor service we provided. The affected organizations and the American public deserve better. I think that what happened here was that foolish mistakes were made by people trying to be more efficient in their workload selection. The listing described in the report, while intolerable, was a mistake and not an act of partisanship.”