Posted on 05/23/2013 7:22:56 AM PDT by billorites
Lois Lerner, the IRS official in charge of tax-exempt groups, took her too-clever-by-half act to Congress yesterday and may have waived her right to claim her Fifth Amendment privilege in the process. Appearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, she couldn’t resist citing a little history, bragging on her public service, instructing the committee as to the purpose of the Fifth Amendment, and proclaiming her innocence of everything the committee might be interested in — all before asserting her Fifth Amendment privilege.
Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) was a bit taken aback. He had never seen anybody try that before. Neither had I. Witnesses and lawyers know, or should know, that you can’t selectively invoke the Fifth Amendment — that is, partially testify. That is why, if a decision is made to take the Fifth, a lawyer will instruct his client to invoke it after almost every question, after identity is established, out of an abundance of caution. You don’t want your client to unintentionally waive the privilege.
he reason for the “selectivity” rule is to prevent the distortion of the record or the perversion of justice. What if a witness testified as to his side of the story and then took the Fifth on cross-examination? No fair. So now Issa is planning to call her back and take the position that she waived the privilege and must testify or, presumably, face contempt charges. So did she waive the privilege? As you might expect, the matter is not quite as simple as it appears.
As best I can remember, there is no case on point involving a congressional hearing. Although court cases, both criminal and civil, are applicable, though somewhat different standards are applied, the general rule as to waiver is as I’ve stated. Even in the court decisions, however, there is probably no case on point. As I stated, people simply don’t usually get themselves in this position. Also, the cases are very fact-specific.
No two cases are alike. However, in light of the purpose of the waiver rule, I think Ms. Lerner has a real problem. And it’s not just because of the statement she made yesterday. Apparently, Ms. Lerner made statements to the committee or committee staff before yesterday, either in person, answering written questions, or both, regarding the committee’s IRS-targeting investigation. The courts have held that a person can be deemed to have waived the privilege in prior testimony if the testimony was part of the “same proceeding.” Seems pretty clear that it was: For example, one court has held that grand-jury testimony was part of the same proceeding as the subsequent trial. So if, in prior testimony, she revealed an incriminating fact, the privilege cannot be invoked to avoid discussion of the details.
Then add the fact that Issa got her to verify at least some of her prior written statements yesterday, and supplement that with her statement as to her innocence, etc., and one must conclude that she may pay dearly for her little moment of indulgence. It was about as clever as planting a question in an out-of-the-way conference on a Friday afternoon in order to have the scandal dribble out mainly unnoticed. It may well get the same results.
It is going to be quite interesting to see how well all the people Soetoro throws under his bus do after the brouhaha ratchets down. There are going to have to be some BIG payoffs to the people who take the fall protecting Barack “the Constitution Killer†Hussein. Of course, the most effective one would be the right to keep breathing.
She’s toast. Hope she has some one else start her car in the am.
Looks like making up the rules as you go along may catch up with
They can't force you to remember something that you "don't remember."
They can’t make you remember. All they can do is find you guilty and throw you in jail... and make you wish you might have had a memory.
Unless she has previously indicated knowledge of the question topic during previous questioning or in previous writings.
She is a true daughter of the Revolution. She's been at this kind of stuff for a long time. Before the IRS, she was hammering people through the FEC and, as Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs describes, was head of the Enforcement Division of the FEC and made sure not to investigate the mountain of illegal overseas money rolling into the Obama campaign coffers. Remember this sort of thing?
She's had a controlling hand in corrupting TWO presidential elections.
You must have the GOP confused with somebody with some gonads.
In the 1990’s, Lerner also served as chief of enforcement at the Federal Elections Commission.
Under her direction, the FEC undertook the largest enforcement action in its history — suing the Christian Coalition for violating campaign laws. The Christian Coalition won, but in one deposition, FEC lawyers asked a defendant if televangelist Pat Robertson prayed for him.
James Bopp, the Christian Coalition’s lawyer, said he was “shocked and appalled” by that.
“Both political activity and religious activity are specifically protected by the First Amendment,” he said.
When Bopp learned years later that Lerner had been promoted to an IRS position, he became concerned.
“She was in effect being promoted for what she had done at the Federal Election Commission and now was going to be expected ... to replicate that at the IRS and now we know that’s exactly what happened,” he said.
Lerner is represented by lawyer William W. Taylor, who is noted for winning a dismissal of all charges against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a high-profile sexual assault case.
he’ll grant it to everyone so we can have all the ‘facts’ and nobody serving a day behind bars.
When you are intellectually sloppy and routinely spew dated and groundless blather... it is a comfort to believe that you can ‘have it both ways'...i.e., say what the he%$ ever you want, and NEVER corroborate anything that comes out of your mouth... yet demand perfect credulity from EVERYONE else!’.
Too bad, but once in a while you run into a brick wall... it's called REALITY.
THIS particular Liberal made the mistake of pulling this stunt IN PUBLIC and in FULL VIEW of all and sundry.
Even the traditionally biased MSM can't undo what she so recklessly and arrogantly did for all the world to see! :)
We’ll learn his opinion tonight...
Yep... nobody really wants to take this to the next level.... except maybe Rep Jordan. He’s ready to go to the next level. A republican Governor needs to invite her to some event in their state. Then arrest her on state charges for violating their citizens civil rights. Throw her in jail pending jury trial...without probation because she is likely a flight risk..... and then sit tight for a while.
IRS Secretary Arrested for Racking Up $8,515 of Personal Items on Agency Credit Card
Posted 3 hours ago by Dave Jolly Filed under Crime, Government Spending, Morality
Once the cork popped on the sacred establishment known as the Internal Revenue Service, it seems that almost every day some new scandal or problem surfaces.
In the latest news rising out of the ashes of what once were the pristine halls of the IRS, a secretary has been arrested and charged with a felony for using an IRS issued credit card for personal items. Yetunde Oseni, 37 started working as a secretary in the Lanham, Maryland office of the IRS in 2000. In 2009, she was issued a Citibank MasterCard to be used for the purchasing of office supplies.
It appears that Oseni decided that she could use her IRS MasterCard to purchase personal items off the internet, mostly at Amazon.com. When asked for the receipts for her purchases, she tried to alter them so as to hide her personal spending. An investigation was launched and it was discovered that Oseni had purchased a minimum of $8,515 worth of items for her and her family. Among her purchases were:
Chocolate fondue fountain
Bollywood movies
Pampers
Omaha steaks
Harlequin romance novels
Apple Bottoms skinny jeans
Mango body wash
Ginsu knife set
2 plus size trench coats
Hello Kitty cosmetic set and Dream Diary Kit
MAC Haughty & Naughty lash mascara
Nostalgia Electrics RSM-702 Retro Series snow cone maker
3 lbs party candy
Toy piñata
Lansinoh lanolin nursing cream
4 prs Leveret children pajamas
Sure she can, and in Response Issa can say, ‘Fine, you wish to play that way so be it, we have your testimony dated... and we have your written testimony that you agreed yesterday was in fact your answers to our questions. If you don’t care to help us clear up the discrepencies in the testimony and facts that the IG presented along with other witnesses we deposed over the last week we will now proceed to vote on a count of perjury.
He could do that after every question. All Day. Every two or three perjury counts he could add another count of obstruction of congress charge.
There isn’t a lawyer in the world that would not properly instruct their client on the procedure for invoking the fifth. My heavens, she is an attorney herself. She had a prepared statement, which had to have been prepared or at least approved by her attorneys. This was stunning and to have proceeded without researching this issue would have been legal suicide.
Since Lerner will probably be fired anyway, why would that stop her from negotiating 'immunity' by refusing to testify based on the 5th Amendment ?
To heck with her, what about the rest of us? This means any of us could unintentionally "waive the privilege" before we knew we might need to use it.
Aside from duty, honor, the pursuit of justice, etc., why should anyone answer any questions ever? You can screw yourself without meaning to or even knowing it.
The departments included in this executive order are named specifically and the IRS is not.
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