Republican IRS agent reportedly says he was behind Tea Party scrutiny A manager at the agency reportedly told Congress that he and a colleague were behind the practice

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., says that a manager at the IRS, who describes himself as a conservative Republican, told a congressional committee that he and a colleague at the Cinncinnati office were behind the practice of targeting Tea Party and other conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

"He is a conservative Republican working for the IRS. I think this interview and these statements go a long way toward showing that the White House was not involved in this," Cummings sain CNN's "State of the Union," adding: "Based upon everything I've seen, the case is solved. And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on."

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Reuters reports:

The excerpts of interviews with IRS workers released by Cummings indicate that the IRS manager and an underling first decided to contact Washington, D.C. IRS officials for guidance on the cases from groups aligned with the anti-tax Tea Party movement. They did so to consolidate them, as they might be precedent-setting for future cases, the manager said, according to the interview transcripts.

"They wanted to make sure that it was handled in a way whereby when other cases came behind it that were similar, that they would be treated in a consistent way," Cummings said.