The details released by Mr. Carney on Monday went beyond a previous White House account, and may provide more fodder for critics pressing to understand what and when the president and his team knew about the misconduct. During a series of television interviews on Sunday, Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser, made no mention that Mr. McDonough or others had been notified and said that the White House had “no idea what the facts were” when it was informed.

Mr. Carney on Monday acknowledged that Ms. Ruemmler was told that certain words like “Tea Party” and “patriot” were used to target conservative groups. “We knew the nature of some of the potential findings,” he said, “but we did not have a copy of the draft report, we did not know the details, the scope or the motivation surrounding the misconduct, and we did not know who was responsible.”

He said the White House discussed the pending report with officials in two offices of Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew — his chief of staff and general counsel — “to understand the anticipated timing of the release of the report and the potential findings” by the inspector general.

A Treasury Department official said Monday that the department deferred to the I.R.S. in deciding how to make the audit findings public. The I.R.S. first suggested mentioning it in a speech in April by Lois Lerner, head of the division overseeing tax-exempt organizations. The Treasury Department expressed concern about the idea but deferred, according to the official, who refused to be identified discussing internal deliberations.

When she did not disclose the findings then, the I.R.S. assumed it would make them public when its acting commissioner, Steven Miller, testified on Capitol Hill, and the Treasury official said the department again deferred. But Mr. Miller was not asked about the investigation and did not volunteer information. In both instances, the official said, Treasury officials discussed the ideas with the White House.