House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, citing the testimony of IRS employees who spoke to his committee behind closed doors, argued Sunday that the tax agency’s targeting of conservative groups was not the result of a few “rogue agents” in the Cincinnati field office, as the IRS and the Obama administration have insisted, but the product of a direct order from IRS headquarters in Washington. Nevertheless, Former White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday that no special prosecutor is necessary to disentangle the multifaceted IRS scandal, Politicoreports.

The AP is reporting a government watchdog has found that the IRS spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012.  According to a House committee, that total included $4 million for an August 2010 conference, where attendees booked presidential suites at $3,500 a night and outside speakers were paid a total of $135,000, with one receiving $17,000 to talk about “leadership through art.”