Rep. Jordan Pledges to Get to Bottom of IRS 'Abuse of Taxpayers' First Amendment Rights

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) pledged that the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will get to the bottom of the "IRS' abuse of taxpayers’ First Amendment rights," which he said members of the Obama administration have been aware of since last summer when he and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) called for an inspector general's investigation.

“At the risk of sounding, I guess a little boastful, we’d like to think that because Congressman Issa and I requested the audit of the IRS -- when Tea Party groups from all over the country and specifically from the fourth district of Ohio, came to us and said ‘look we’re getting harassed,’ -- we said let’s check into this and so we requested the audit and the audit by the inspector general is what prompted the IRS to actually come forward and admit to what they did,” Issa said in a video response (below) via TellDC.com, a website that allows people to ask questions to their elected representatives.

Jordan and Issa requested the audit in a June 28, 2012 letter sent directly to Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George that pointed out examples of IRS “overreach.”

Gearing up for a hearing next Wednesday, Jordan told TellDC.com that the committee is planning to seek testimony from other IRS witnesses in addition to Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Division, who will be a key witness.

Watch the rest of Jordan's response to Melissa Hopkins, Executive Producer at TellDC.com:

Video courtesy of TellDC.com.

Front page image credit: AP