Whether or not the IRS or the Administration claimed that "two rogue agents" in Cincinnati were behind the IRS is driving the RW news, including a tweet from @DarrellIssa today:
"First, Cummings tried to convince Am. people #IRS officials in DC didn't play a role in inappropriate scrutiny of Tea Party groups."
Now, due to the proliferation of this meme, anytime anyone in Washington is shown to have been involved in any way in the 'targeting' of conservative groups, it's taken as evidence of lying.
The problem is that there's no evidence that the IRS (specifically, ex-Director Miller) or the Administration ever said this. The problem seems to be sloppy reporting by CNN...
If you do a search on many news articles mentioning "two rogue agents" on or before May 15, you will find, surprisingly, that they all point to a CNN "stub" article:
CNN: http://is.gd/...
TPM: http://is.gd/...
HuffPo: http://is.gd/...
The CNN Stub (http://is.gd/...) directs to May 16(!) article: Angry' Obama announces IRS leader's ouster after conservatives targeted http://is.gd/...
How can May 15 articles point to a May 16 article? My guess is the article was updated in part to modify the "2 rogue agents" claim to include the second source. Here is what the (modified) May 16 version ACTUALLY says:
News of Miller's resignation followed revelations that the IRS has identified two "rogue" employees in the agency's Cincinnati office as being principally responsible for the "overly aggressive" handling of requests by conservative groups for tax-exempt status, a congressional source told CNN.
Miller said the staffers have already been disciplined, according to another source familiar with Miller's discussions with congressional investigators. The second source said Miller emphasized that the problem with IRS handling of tax-exempt status for tea party groups was not limited to these two employees. ↤[NOTE last sentence]
I think they were covering their tracks after first reporting it was just "rogue" employees, after they got a second source indicating Miller denied this.
But "Teh Meme" lives on...
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Additional:
This may have started it: Mediaite: CNN Exclusive: Two ‘Rogue’ IRS Employees Blamed For Tea Party Targeting Scandal http://is.gd/... CNN's Drew Griffin is source, w NO mention of second source.
Possibly first version of CNN long article (by Dana Bash), but only remains on Fox: mentions "second source" on May 15 first: http://is.gd/... Was rewritten for May 16 article.
NOTE: Many assume that anyone in Washington being involved in the 'targeting' means the White House was involved. There are eight organizational levels in the IRS, only two are located in Cincinnati. The President is 10 levels above the individual agents.