Top White House staff, including Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, knew that a potentially damaging inspector general's report on the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of tea party groups was looming but decided not to inform President Barack Obama.
Press Secretary Jay Carney, who was peppered with questions about what and when the White House and the president knew, told reporters Monday that it was "appropriate" that nobody told the president anything because there was nothing to be done until the report came out. Any action would have amounted to interfering in an investigation, Carney said, and he noted that the targeting ended nearly a year earlier.
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