IRS-skandalen har bare begynt å rulle, men er allerede en tung sten rundt Obamas hals. I 2012 forsikret skatteetaten, IRS, at det ikke var noen politisk slagside på søknader om skattefritak for politiske organisasjoner. Dette var like etter at en intern granskning hadde vist det motsatte.

Dette kom frem under en høring i Kongressen fredag.

According to the inspector general’s report, Mr. Miller was aware of the political targeting in March 2012, sending a team from I.R.S. headquarters in Washington to discuss it with the program’s leaders in Cincinnati. Yet a month later, Mr. Miller, then the deputy I.R.S. commissioner for enforcement, wrote a letter to Republican senators saying there was no targeting of conservative groups.

“There is a penalty for lying to Congress,” Mr. Boustany said.

Mr. Miller er lederen av skatteetaten som nylig måtte tre tilbake etter avsløringer om at grupper som Tea Party-bevegelsen ble forskjellsbehandlet.

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.”

It remained unclear how much the disclosure would affect the broader debate over the I.R.S.’s problems. Complaints from Tea Party groups that the I.R.S. was singling them out became public in 2012, through media accounts.

Var den politiske ledelsen i finansdepartementet klar over forskjellsbehandlingen? Det er det store spørsmålet. Det er nye høringer til uken.