Posted on 04/10/2014 9:10:33 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) challenged the notion that former IRS official Lois Lerner still had the right to remain silent since she had made factual assertions since she invoked her Fifth Amendment right.
Gowdy said that he counted 17 separate factual assertions by Lerner which in his opinion was enough to force her to be cross-examined.
“That’s a lot of talking for someone who wants to remain silent. That’s a lot of talking!” Gowdy thundered. “If you honestly that you can make 17 separate factual assertions and still invoke your right to remain silent, then please tell me what waiver is?”
Lerner, the former Director of the IRS Exempt Organizations at the center of the IRS scandal resigned in September 2013, after coming under fire for targeting additional IRS scrutiny of conservative and Tea Party groups.
Lerner cited her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in a May 2013 House Oversight Committee hearing when she was first called to testify on the matter.
“I have not done anything wrong,” she said during the hearing. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”
Video at link
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Wrong analogy!
Do you believe that you would plead the 5th on ANY and EVERY subject for which you might be broght to court?
The others obviously didn't.
Plus, if the passive public doesn't care and the state-controlled media blanks them out there isn't much a minority of conservative legislators can do in DC.....even with all the cajones in the world.
It'll be up to all of us to rectify this in November, God willing.
Leni
Thanks for your reply. That’s what I was thinking (though I’m not an attorney, don’t play one on TV, and didn’t sleep at a Holiday Inn last night). It just came to me yesterday morning.
I agree that Issa and the Pubbies on the committee didn’t know that Lois was speaking with the DOJ. I would think that at least Gowdy would have jumped on it if he knew. In fact, I remember Issa being on Greta (or perhaps Megyn) the night before or a few nights before Lerner’s appearance at the Committee. He stated that Lerner’s lawyer told him she would cooperate and testify. I could be wrong, but I’m thinking that she went to the DOJ just prior to her testifying, they gave her legal advice (maybe not extensive advice, but told her to take the 5th).
You have some good questions. There are a few threads on FR discussing that Cummings could spend up to 5 years in prison. Here’s one of them: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3142845/posts
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