"When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt,
but protects the corrupt from you -
you know your nation is doomed."
-Ayn Rand
Posted on 03/06/2014 4:59:52 PM PST by jazusamo
House Republicans on Thursday slammed the former IRS official at the center of the agency’s targeting controversy for answering questions from the Justice Department after invoking the Fifth Amendment in a congressional hearing.
Republicans on the Oversight Committee said that Lois Lerner’s decision to sit down with federal investigators made them wonder how seriously the Justice Department was taking the investigation into the IRS’s treatment of Tea Party groups. “Think about it: Actually, the people who can put her in jail — she’ll talk to them,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told The Hill. “But she won’t talk to a bunch of Congress guys? She won’t give us the answers? You’ve got to be kidding me. Because she knows the [Justice] investigation’s a joke.”
The statements from Republicans came a day after Lerner again took the Fifth, after first invoking those rights against self-incrimination in May 2013.
But Lerner’s return to Capitol Hill has largely been overshadowed since then, after Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) adjourned Wednesday’s hearing and cut the microphone of the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.).
Democrats intensified their criticism of Issa on Thursday, as Republicans tried to bring the focus back to Lerner.
“She obviously isn’t afraid to talk about it,” said Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.). “I think she should.”
Lerner, who retired in September, was the IRS official who first apologized for the agency’s treatment of Tea Party groups. After almost 10 months of investigation, Republicans say she could be the key to understanding why and how the IRS gave improper scrutiny to conservative groups.
But Bill Taylor, Lerner’s lawyer, has said he doesn’t believe his client will ever answer House Oversight’s questions.
Taylor told reporters on Wednesday that he believed Republicans were only seeking to embarrass Lerner, not to uncover facts for their longstanding investigation into the IRS.
He added that Lerner’s interview with the Justice came “without conditions,” and noted that she would be risking jail time by lying to the federal investigators. Reports have suggested that the Justice Department does not intend to file criminal charges related to the IRS's treatment of groups seeking tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status.
“I have every confidence that they’re fair minded and they don’t have a political objective, and hadn’t made up their minds about what the facts were,” Taylor said.
Am I missing something here, is this what the Founders intended?
"When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt,
but protects the corrupt from you -
you know your nation is doomed."
-Ayn Rand
Oh, just let Obama take care of her.
Answering questions for the DOJ or getting her new orders?
Yep, new orders from 0bama thru Eric the Red is more like it.
Does this answering of questions then mean she has given up her right to invoke the fifth?
Can a witness pick and choose when the fifth applies?
Promptly arrest her for contempt of Congress...
I know. Greta keeps lecturing him on this but he doesn’t get it.
That’s my view also but I’m no legal beagle.
Lerner taking her cue from Eric ‘Contempt of Congress’ Holder.
I don’t know what the founders intended, but this is kabuki theatre for the masses. Nothing will come of it.
Begs the question: if she’s innocent of wrongdoing, what could embarrass her?
Begs the question: if she’s innocent of wrongdoing, what could embarrass her?
>> House Republicans on Thursday slammed
Bleat bleat bleat. Do your job. Do your job or shut up.
-——I know. Greta keeps lecturing him on this but he doesn’t get it.-——
Issa gets it... he’s either doing a political strategy (I’m not sure to what end ) or gutless or Holder has the goods on him....
That’s right but in my view she’s about as innocent as William Jefferson caught with the $100K in his freezer.
Of course the DemocRats will keep throwing the innocent thing out there for their LIV base.
Or Boehner has ordered him not to rock the boat...
Very well could be....
That would not surprise me at all....
I sincerely hope that Lois Lerner is as miserable as she appears to be.
Keep the same talking point! Keep calling it the "LOIS LERNER" IRS scandal - don't deviate.
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