REP. SANDER LEVIN:

That's not true at all.

By the way, you mentioned the efforts to tie this to the White House. That's what Mr. Mica, Dave Camp, Senator Hatch and others, they have talked about. Dave Camp at the hearing, this first hearing, talked about a culture of cover-up within the administration. Zero evidence of that, and there never has been such evidence.

And we never said that the use of these inappropriate criteria, that that use was minor. Indeed, as I said earlier, I was among the first to say that those in responsible positions should be relieved of their responsibilities.

No, there were inappropriate criteria. They applied both to liberal and conservative organizations, more to conservative organizations, because they had filed many more applications for 501(c)(4). And there is a legitimate concern about the use of 501(c)(4)s, because they're supposed to relate to social welfare predominantly, and you have today out in the public the use of 501(c)(4)s for essentially political purposes.

From 2006 to 2012, in 2006, there was a million dollars used reported to the FEC for political purposes by 501(c)(4). That jumped to $250 million by 2012. Half of it came from Karl Rove and Koch brother organizations.

So there's a legitimate concern, but we never said that the use of these criteria, inappropriately so, was minor. We never said that.