When a FOIA Request Demanded Any Documents Specifically Mentioning the Tea Party, the IRS Claimed That No Documents Could Be Found Responsive to This Request

From the Free Beacon:

The Internal Revenue Service denied the existence of any documents related to its policy of targeting Tea Party organizations in response to a 2010 Freedom of Information Act request, even though such documents were later discovered by the IRS inspector general. 

The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a conservative nonprofit group, filed a FOIA request in 2010 through investigative journalist Lynn K. Walsh seeking all IRS documents related to the agencies tax-exempt division specifically mentioning the Tea Party. 

IRS headquarters responded in 2011 that it “found no documents specifically responsive to your request.” 

However, the May 14 inspector general report found that the “first Sensitive Case Report [identifying Tea Party groups] was prepared by the Technical Unit” in April of 2010.