Ruemmler did not receive a draft of the report but was informed of its contents on April 24, and she informed McDonough and other staff—whom Carney declined to identify. The information was not shared with President Barack Obama, who says he first learned of the IRS conduct from news reports on May 10. The final report was released on May 14.
When pressed to explain why he didn't previously share this information with the press, Carney responded that this also was new information to him.
"I think that I said I didn't know until Friday," Carney said, referring to May 17.
Carney spent the majority of Monday's briefing answering questions about the IRS controversy, which the White House had attempted to tamp down over the weekend by sending senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer on the Sunday morning news shows.
Carney defended the decision by staff not to share information about the report with the president, saying the president could not have acted on the report even if he was aware.
Carney also suggested that scrutiny over how quickly the White House reacted are baseless.