White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a press conference Tuesday that the White House was notified about the IRS targeting tea party groups “several weeks ago.” This comes a day after President Obama said he found out about it from news reports on Friday of last week.

During a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday, President Obama was asked about the IRS scandal. He responded, “I first learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this. I think it was on Friday.”

However, Carney said Tuesday that first a report had to be compiled by the IRS’s inspector general and then when it was completed, it was passed on to the administration.

“A notification is appropriate and routine and that is what happened and that happened several weeks ago,” Carney said.

Carney said the White House will not make a formal statement until a complete IG report is released.

Carney said later in the press conference that although the White House was notified “weeks ago” about the IRS investigaton, neither he nor the president were notified individually.

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