[h=3]By JOHN D. MCKINNON[/h]
EPAInternal Revenue Service (IRS) Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner, right, with Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, left, during the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on May 22, 2013.
Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a controversy over targeting of conservative groups, was placed on administrative leave as of Thursday, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The IRS said Ken Corbin, a 27-year IRS employee who currently is deputy director in the wage and investment division, would serve as the acting director for the agency's tax-exempt organizations division. In his current job, he leads over 17,000 employees sharing day-to-day responsibility for processing 172 million individual and business tax returns, the IRS said.
"Ken is a proven leader during challenging times," said acting commissioner Danny Werfel.
Ms. Lerner is the head of an IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt organizations. The unit—and Ms. Lerner herself—have been caught up in a storm of controversy over its handling of tax-exemption applications by tea-party and other conservative groups in recent years.
The IRS is facing congressional probes and a Justice Department criminal investigation into revelations that from early 2010 through early 2012 it gave extra scrutiny to the conservative groups applying for nonprofit status. The Treasury inspector general for the IRS last week found that IRS workers in an office in Cincinnati used inappropriate criteria to steer applications from tea-party and other conservative groups into a special, time-consuming review process.
Ms. Lerner has come in for particular criticism for not disclosing the problems before May 10, when she revealed them at a lawyers' conference and apologized for them.
A letter last week from the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee accused her of providing "false or misleading" information in prior communications with the panel.
At a committee hearing Wednesday, Ms. Lerner declined to answer questions about her role in the matter, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
"I have not done anything wrong," Ms. Lerner told the committee in an opening statement.
Panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) now is deciding whether to try to recall her as a witness and compel her to testify, on the basis that her opening statement constituted a waiver of her right. Her lawyer, William Taylor III, said the statement doesn't amount to a waiver.
"Ms. Lerner has consistently acted honestly and appropriately," Mr. Taylor said Thursday. "She did not mislead any congressional committees or staff."
Write to John D. McKinnon at [email protected]
A version of this article appeared May 23, 2013, on page A4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: IRS Places on Leave the Official at Center of Scandal.
Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of a controversy over targeting of conservative groups, was placed on administrative leave as of Thursday, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The IRS said Ken Corbin, a 27-year IRS employee who currently is deputy director in the wage and investment division, would serve as the acting director for the agency's tax-exempt organizations division. In his current job, he leads over 17,000 employees sharing day-to-day responsibility for processing 172 million individual and business tax returns, the IRS said.
"Ken is a proven leader during challenging times," said acting commissioner Danny Werfel.
Ms. Lerner is the head of an IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt organizations. The unit—and Ms. Lerner herself—have been caught up in a storm of controversy over its handling of tax-exemption applications by tea-party and other conservative groups in recent years.
The IRS is facing congressional probes and a Justice Department criminal investigation into revelations that from early 2010 through early 2012 it gave extra scrutiny to the conservative groups applying for nonprofit status. The Treasury inspector general for the IRS last week found that IRS workers in an office in Cincinnati used inappropriate criteria to steer applications from tea-party and other conservative groups into a special, time-consuming review process.
Ms. Lerner has come in for particular criticism for not disclosing the problems before May 10, when she revealed them at a lawyers' conference and apologized for them.
A letter last week from the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee accused her of providing "false or misleading" information in prior communications with the panel.
At a committee hearing Wednesday, Ms. Lerner declined to answer questions about her role in the matter, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
"I have not done anything wrong," Ms. Lerner told the committee in an opening statement.
Panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) now is deciding whether to try to recall her as a witness and compel her to testify, on the basis that her opening statement constituted a waiver of her right. Her lawyer, William Taylor III, said the statement doesn't amount to a waiver.
"Ms. Lerner has consistently acted honestly and appropriately," Mr. Taylor said Thursday. "She did not mislead any congressional committees or staff."
Write to John D. McKinnon at [email protected]
A version of this article appeared May 23, 2013, on page A4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: IRS Places on Leave the Official at Center of Scandal.