A top IRS official has admitted that Cincinnati IRS agents targeted groups requesting tax exempt status based on "party affiliation" and "guilt by association," according to documents obtained by the legal watchdog group Judicial Watch.

The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, included handwritten notes from an unidentified source at an interoffice meeting at IRS headquarters in Washington. The meeting apparently took place around August 2011.

According to an IRS court filing provided to Judicial Watch by the IRS, the notes were part of information taken from the following individuals:

-Four Chief Counsel employees -- Victoria Judson, Janine Cook, Susan Brown, and Don Spellmann

-Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division employee Nalee Park

-Former IRS employee Sarah Hall Ingram

The notes reveal former IRS Director of the Office of Rulings and Agreements Holly Paz's concern about the Cincinnati office's targeting of groups based upon ideology and party affiliation.

The Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuits came on the heels of the 2013 Treasury Inspector General report revealing that the IRS had singled out groups with conservative-sounding terms in their titles, such as "patriot" and "Tea Party."

The IG probe determined that "Early in Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using inappropriate criteria, such as donor lists, to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status.

According to the report, the illegal IRS reviews continued for more than 18 months and "delayed processing of targeted groups' applications" preparing for the 2012 presidential election.