Aide: Obama Learned About IRS From News Accounts

A senior White House adviser insists President Barack Obama learned the Internal Revenue Service had been targeting tea party groups "when it came out in the news."

Speaking Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union," Dan Pfeiffer says the White House counsel's office learned of the IRS inspector general's investigation in late April, but Obama wasn't informed of the probe.

Pfeiffer says "the cardinal rule" for all administrations is to avoid giving off the appearance of interference in an independent investigation.

He says --quote -- "the political sensitivity is exactly why no one got involved."

Pfeiffer says the new acting IRS commissioner will do a 30-day top-down review to examine everything that happened. Pfeiffer says the new commissioner will make sure that anyone who did anything wrong is held accountable.

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