Posted on 05/21/2013 1:56:44 PM PDT by cotton1706
Tuesday afternoon a bombshell was dropped into the already explosive IRS scandal when it was reported that Lois Lerner, a top IRS official in the non-profit division that paralyzed Tea Party groups with ongoing harassment, would invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions during Congressional testimony schedule before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. The LA Times reports that Lerner will refuse to answer any questions about what she knows about the targeting of conservative groups. She will also refuse to explain why she is refusing to answer questions.
Lerner has retained defense attorney William W. Taylor 3rd, who sent a letter to Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee. In the letter Taylor said, "She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.”
Taylor is hoping Issa will excuse his client from having to testify in order to save her the embarrassment of having to invoke the Fifth in public. Per The L.A. Times, the committee hasn't yet answered her request one way or the other.
ADDED: National Journal reports that Issa "has issued a subpoena to Lerner anyway."
Since the IRS scandal broke wide open ten days ago, Lerner has been at the center of the controversy. She is not only the head of the division that oversaw the Kafka-esque harassment of President Obama's political foes; she has also been caught on numerous occasions making misleading statements.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I keep hearing the question “who did this or who ordered this”. With all the documents with questions sent to these groups, start with whomever had their name attached and or signed them from the IRS. Work your way up from there.
Yes, you can invoke the 5th amendment under those circumstance.
So they can plead the 5th amendment and violate the first amendment?
BS on that.
And they still can keep their job at the IRS? And continue to target conservatives? What’s wrong with this picture?
Oh, yes. And the Second and the Fourth while they're at it.
What are you talking about? As a taxpayer, you have to sign a return stating all of your income and its sources. When you sign it, you say you are signing it under penalties of perjury.
If you refuse to file on Fifth Amendment grounds, or if you file but refuse to sign it, you are in a world of trouble.
So what are you talking about?
And we haven't even covered the Fourth Amendment violations involved in an audit.
Does that mean Obama will give them a promotion and a bonus?
No, it means Obama will allow her and her family to live a safe, happy life free from any unfortunate accidents.
He doesn’t even appear to have removed that particular individual from her current job. This is getting pretty interesting.
Should this IRS official still be called before the House?
They tried to bury the story on their home-page, but readers are finding their scoop and voting in their poll.
Check out the poll results. ...somewhat surprising for LATimes readers.
Every single damned thing is wrong with this picture.
Pink tissue boy Boner needs to appoint a Special Prosecutor to uncover this stone-walling.
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The only time the Weeper gets tough is when he’s looking to marginalize the Tea Party.
Well, that can’t be cheap.
At least we found one part of the Constitution that the Obama administration likes.
A criminal investigation is underway.
So many people miss the obvious.
If the harassment of conservative groups was really because of some low level person in Cincinnati, the upper levels of management would be in a hurry to have hearings and investigations and advice as to how to prevent repeats.
All this take the fifth stuff just proves that the low level people in Cincinnati were not where this originated.
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