Is this why Lois Lerner wants Immunity?
Posted on 02/27/2014 7:33:10 PM PST by smoothsailing
February 27, 2014
Well, that didn’t take long. One day after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent former IRS Tax Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner a letter requiring her appearance before the Committee on March 5th, her attorneys say she won’t testify without being granted immunity. Once again, Republicans are given the perfect opportunity to introduce the Malik Obama scandal to the public.
Is this why Lois Lerner wants Immunity?
Via Fox News:
The attorney for Lois Lerner, a central figure in the IRS scandal, signaled Wednesday that his client will not comply with a request to testify on Capitol Hill next week.
Attorney William Taylor said Lerner, who resigned last year as the agency’s tax-exempt organizations chief, will return and testify only if compelled by a federal court or if given immunity for her testimony.
Taylor stated his position in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was responding to a letter Tuesday from Issa saying, in part, that Lerner’s testimony remains “critical to the committee’s investigation.”
The committee continues to investigate the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations trying to get tax-exempt status.
Despite Taylor’s letter, staffers with the committee told Fox News they still expect Lerner to show up on March 5. Unclear is whether she would answer any questions.
That last sentence is in bold because it may provide the Committee with a huge opportunity. All eyes will be on this hearing, even if Lerner says nothing. If one, just one, Congressmen brings up the issue of Lerner’s signature being at the bottom of the 501(c)(3) approval letter for Malik Obama’s Foundation, the matter will be on the public record and the ball will be placed firmly back in Lerner’s court.
As an aside, Lerner’s name is not the only name on Malik’s approval letter. Perhaps the other IRS employee at the time should be questioned.
At that point, the Committee could begin playing hardball. If Lerner wants immunity, it should be conditional, to include her giving up everything she knows about why a man who has been found to have extremely nefarious connections to terrorists was given U.S. taxpayer dollars at her direction. If, as evidence suggests, Malik Obama qualifies as an enemy combatant, Lerner may have provided material support to terrorism during the commission of another crime (illegally backdating the approval by 38 months). Democrats could be in the unenviable position of choosing terrorism over the rule of law.
What is apparently not acknowledged by Lerner’s attorneys is the finding that the reason she is being called back to testify is because the Committee determined that she waived her Fifth amendment right against self-incrimination when she declared her innocence prior to doing so. Here is the now classic video of Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) calling out Lerner after doing so:
VIDEO-Rep. Trey Gowdy Objects to IRS Official Ms. Lerner Taking the 5th Amendment
Last May, we suggested a list of questions that should be asked of Lerner if granted immunity in exchange for her testimony. In fact, these questions should still be asked of her – even if she refuses to speak – on March 5th. Shortly after the hearing, she’s likely to start singing like a canary.
Not only would such questions put Lerner on defense but Democratic Committee members who’ve been running interference for the Obama administration and the IRS will suddenly be faced with the prospect of running interference for a woman who may have aided and abetted terrorists.
It’s long past time for Congress to go on offense. Multiple members of Congress were sent this information via U.S. certified mail on February 20th – including three members on the Oversight Committee; Gowdy is among them.
Barack Obama's Family Connection to Terrorism
Another good point. “I refuse to answer” can just change to “I don’t recall.”
What’s the value of Congressional/Senate immunity? It’s not like John Dean et al. didn’t get prosecuted anyway.
It’s a tradeoff. We could send her to jail, but then there would be no reason for her to give us Obama, Pelosi, Biden, or whomever else would be even more worth it to send to jail.
Huh, anyone want to bet on what kind of accident befalls her?
The GOPe won’t do squat
How much does she know, and who can she implicate? Since Watergate the White Huts have learned how to protect the Big Kahuna!
O boy! IRS Jeooardy!
I’ll take heart attack for $500 Jack
She could pull a Webb Hubbell
In UK they are Euthanizing over 10,000 a month:
130,000 elderly patients killed every year by ‘death pathway’, claims leading UK doctor
by Thaddeus Baklinski Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:02 EST Tags: euthanasia, patrick pullicino, uk
LONDON, June 21, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An eminent British doctor told a meeting of the Royal Society of Medicine in London that every year 130,000 elderly patients that die while under the care of the National Health Service (NHS) have been effectively euthanized by being put on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), n a protocol for care of the terminally ill that he described as a “death pathway.”
Once Obamacare death panels kick in.....and scaled for relative population size...that makes something like 750,000 euthanizing events a year in the USA.
Well then, put her in jail with a gaggle of reporters and leave them there.
Trey Gowdy: NO WAY we’re giving Lois Lerner immunity,PERIOD!
http://therightscoop.com/trey-gowdy-no-way-were-giving-lois-lerner-immunity-period/
Many thanks for the ping, hoosiermama!
Get that IRS mmmmm...... person on the stand!
From the link upthread:
“...However, Ms. Lerner’s name is not the only one on that document belonging to an IRS employee. Consider the name Renee Railey Norton, who appears to be the one responsible for processing Malik’s 501(c)(3) approval. Ms. Lerner is on paid leave, raking in $3400 / week. Is Ms. Norton on paid leave or is she still working in Cincinnati?..”
Speaker of the House Trey Gowdy has a nice ring to it! B^)
i don’t believe she can demand it. they can compel her to testify.
somehow i don’ t think she wants to spend the rest of her life in jail refusing to testify.
In the Bush era, a top former IRS official who demanded immunity in a case involving targeting of opposition political groups would be a HUGE story. I just checked, and did not see it anywhere on my MSNBC default home page or on my local newspaper website. Maybe it’s there, buried beneath piles of celebrity and “lifestyle” crap, but you get the idea. The MSM is a colossal joke, a very bad joke.
IIRC, the sergeant at arms' authority no longer extends beyond the curb of Capitol Hill.
Nor is there anywhere to keep her in custody. The Capitol Jail is not capable of feeding or keeping prisoners overnight.
Some years ago, Congress agreed to rely on the Justice Dept in matters like these. The understanding was that, even if the administration was an opposition party, they would act in good faith in such matters.
But this Justice Dept isn't going to arrest or jail anybody at the behest of the Republican House.
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