More details emerge on IRS staffer claim of Washington control of targeting

Two IRS employees have provided more details to congressional investigators about how targeting of Tea Party groups in 2010 came from agency officials in Washington, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Transcripts of interviews with the two employees seem to contradict previous claims by top IRS officials blaming lower-level workers in Cincinnati, The Wall Street Journal reported.

While the transcripts don't suggest Obama administration officials knew of or were involved in the flagging of the groups, questions regarding who ordered the targeting still linger.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Elizabeth Horface, whose Cincinnati office looked to IRS officials in the Washington tax-exempt unit for help when she began getting Tea Party cases in 2010, said an IRS lawyer "closely oversaw" her work and suggested questions to ask applicants.

Horface said according to the transcript she had little autonomy from or "authority to act on [applications] without [IRS lawyer] Carter Hull's influence or input."

Hull did not immediately return The Wall Street Journal's request for comment.

Additionally, interviews with an IRS field agent involved in the division that targeted Tea Party groups for additional vetting appeared to contradict the White House’s assertion that rogue agents -- not the administration -- were behind the effort, according to partial transcripts released Sunday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Fox News previously reported.

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