Michigan 12 House Race

Two senior White House aides knew weeks ago that a probe of the Internal Revenue Service had found that the U.S. tax agency had inappropriately targeted conservative groups, but did not tell President Barack Obama, a White House spokesman said on Monday.

Washington Automakers support a proposed free trade deal between the United States and European Union, and want auto safety regulations harmonized on both sides of the Atlantic.

>>> washington a long time, too. and the other thing that happens in washington is, that what you do when you find out information can get you in a lot more trouble than the information you found out. so hard to believe that after 25 years at the irs , he decided, you know i'm going to keep this to myself. >> there are lots of questions still surrounding the irs targeting of tea party groups. michigan congressman sander levin is the top democrat on the house ways and means committee which has been holding hearings on the controversy and joins me now from capitol hill . congressman, thank you very much. were you satisfied with what you heard from steven miller , the acting commissioner? >> no. i think it's very clear as i said many days ago, he should have been relieved and he was relieved of his duties. terrible mismanagement. the seuss of criteria that never should have been used. signaling out groups like tea party or any other political group and i think the failure to keep us posted, i wasn't satisfied. and i think for all of those reasons, his departure was absolutely necessary. >> is it credible to you that the ig report was communicated to at certain levels, but was, that somehow the president didn't know about it? that the white house counsel learned of it? perhaps three weeks ago now and learned of the conclusions, not just the fact that there was an investigation going on. but that the white house chief of staff , that the president never learned? how do we know how contained that is? >> we'll have to find out. i think it is credible. the i.g. said there was no political interference, also, there was no outside interference. and three weeks ago, apparently there was information given to the white house , that a report was coming out. what would people want the white house to do? not interfere with the report, not try to influence it. but essentially to respond to it when it was issued. and that's what apparently has happened. i think if

WASHINGTON â The Internal Revenue Service is feeling the sort of heat that targeted taxpayers feel from the tax agency.

What and when administration officials knew about the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative groups for excessive, often burdensome, scrutiny will monopolize the hot seat this week at two more congressional hearings where lawmakers hope to determine whether the scandal extended beyond the agency's Cincinnati branch.