EXCLUSIVE — An official involved in the Obama-era Internal Revenue Service scandal, which involved IRS officials singling out conservative groups for increased scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status, is now the acting director of the agency’s ethics watchdog department.

Elizabeth Kastenberg, the new acting director of the IRS’s Office of Professional Responsibility, was directly involved in the Obama administration’s audit of conservative nonprofit organizations, which prevented them from taking part in the 2012 election, according to new research compiled by the American Accountability Foundation and obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner. Katsenberg worked to find ways to deny tax-exempt status to groups linked to the Tea Party movement and even admitted that the agency’s behavior was politically motivated.