Carney Categorically States that there Was No White House Involvment in Scandal the White House Learns About from the Media

White House spokesman Jay Carney accidentally gave America ball to keep an eye on in the IRS targeting scandal. Under withering questioning today from CNN’s Jessican Yellen, Carney insisted that the president and the White House are learning the details of the scandal from press reports. He said that it is not obtaining information regarding the scandal in any other way. He also said that he cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.

But when ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Carney whether he could categorically state that no one in the White House or on the president’s political team was involved in any way, Carney flatly answered “No.” That, obviously, was a comment on an ongoing investigation.

How would Carney know that to be the case, unless the White House is questioning people internally? Such interviews would constitute the White House learning about the IRS scandal from sources other than the media, no?

Update: Carney gets grilled on his answer later in the briefing, and backtracks saying that he’s “confident” that no one was involved. He also slips and says “we learned about it a few weeks ago,” then corrects himself to limit that knowledge to the White House counsel’s office.