By Kim Dixon and Kevin Drawbaugh

(Reuters) – A spoof Star Trek video and lavish hotel suites for government workers were singled out on Tuesday by a government watchdog in criticizing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s conference planning and budgeting from 2010 through 2012.

In a report that the IRS has already acknowledged as pointing out “inappropriate” spending, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) faulted the agency specifically for a 2010 conference in Anaheim, California, that cost $4.1 million.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tea Party and other conservative groups delivered an emotional plea for Washington to rein in government overreach on Tuesday as they told lawmakers about how the Internal Revenue Service targeted them with relentless paperwork and intrusive questions when they sought tax-exempt status.

The House Ways and Means Committee invited a collection of groups to speak about their experiences as details continue to emerge about how and why IRS officials in a Cincinnati, Ohio, field office began targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – What began as a bipartisan congressional probe into Internal Revenue Service practices is quickly turning into a verbal brawl with U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, no stranger to controversy, under attack from Democrats and even some of his fellow Republicans.

Issa, the California congressman who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Sunday said in a CNN interview that the IRS’s scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status was “directly being ordered from Washington.”

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) – What began as a bipartisan
congressional probe into Internal Revenue Service practices is
quickly turning into a verbal brawl with U.S. Representative
Darrell Issa, no stranger to controversy, under attack from
Democrats and even some of his fellow Republicans.

Issa, the California congressman who chairs the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Sunday said in a
CNN interview that the IRS’s scrutiny of conservative groups
seeking tax-exempt status was “directly being ordered from
Washington.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The new chief of the Internal Revenue Service told Congress on Monday the tax-collecting agency would fully investigate and repair the problems that led to the inappropriate targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, appearing before Congress for the first time since moving into the top job two weeks ago, said the agency would make a public accounting of the practices that have led to multiple investigations and a political firestorm.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The new chief of the Internal Revenue Service conceded on Friday there was “inappropriate” spending on a 2010 agency conference, a subject set to be the focus of one of three U.S. congressional hearings next week at which the IRS will likely face more criticism.

The IRS is already embroiled in a major political scandal over extra scrutiny it gave to conservative groups seeking tax-free status, and Republicans in the House of Representatives are likely to keep the White House on the defensive over the agency’s actions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – They’ve been scorned in televised congressional hearings for unfairly abusing tax laws, threatened with questioning in a criminal investigation and accused of using federal jobs to push a political agenda.

At this point in the saga surrounding the Internal Revenue Service and its use of “Tea Party” and other search terms to flag conservative groups while reviewing their applications for tax-exempt status, no one appears to have lost their job.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official who this week asserted her right not to answer questions about the controversy over extra scrutiny for conservative groups, took administrative leave on Thursday, a congressional source close to the matter said.

Lerner, head of the IRS tax-exempt division, has become a lightning rod in the fracas over extra scrutiny the agency gave to Tea Party and other conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

By Joan Biskupic and Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) – When embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner was called before a congressional committee Wednesday, she declared that she had done nothing wrong – but said she did not intend to testify. Her defiance only turned up the heat from Republicans who have threatened to take her to court for misleading Congress.

Yet whatever political problems Lerner may have escalated for the Obama administration in the scandal over IRS scrutiny of Tea Party and other conservative groups, history suggests neither she nor any other IRS official is likely to face criminal charges related to congressional testimony.

By Joan Biskupic and Kim Dixon

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) – When embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner was called before a congressional committee Wednesday, she declared that she had done nothing wrong – but said she did not intend to testify. Her defiance only turned up the heat from Republicans who have threatened to take her to court for misleading Congress.

Yet whatever political problems Lerner may have escalated for the Obama administration in the scandal over IRS scrutiny of Tea Party and other conservative groups, history suggests neither she nor any other IRS official is likely to face criminal charges related to congressional testimony.