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DOJ: No contempt charges for former IRS official Lois Lerner
Politico ^ | 04/01/2015 | By JOHN BRESNAHAN and RACHAEL BADE

Posted on 04/01/2015 1:26:47 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The Justice Department will not seek criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, the central figure in a scandal that erupted over whether the tax agency improperly targeted conservative political groups.

Ronald Machen, the former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a seven-page letter this week that he would not bring a criminal case to a grand jury over Lerner’s refusal to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March 2014. The House approved a criminal contempt resolution against Lerner in May 2014, and Machen’s office has been reviewing the issue since then.

Lerner and other IRS officials, however, are still under investigation by the FBI for the tea party targeting matter — which is a separate probe entirely.

Lerner cited her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself during congressional testimony on March 5, 2014, although then-Oversight Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said she had waived that right by giving an opening statement at a hearing 10 months earlier when she asserted her innocence. Issa wanted her charged by the Justice Department with criminal contempt of Congress for failing to answer questions about her role in the scandal.

Machen said the Oversight Committee “followed proper procedures” in telling Lerner that it had “rejected her claim of privilege and gave her an adequate opportunity to answer the committee’s questions.”

However, Machen said DOJ lawyers determined that Lerner “did not waive her Fifth Amendment right by making an opening statement on May 22, 2013, because she made only a general claims of innocence.”

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: 5thamendment; contempt; cultureofcorruption; doj; injusticedepartment; irs; irsscandals; loislerner; obamascandals; searchandfind; whatever
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To: Regulator
The petty meth dealer gets hard time. High Government Criminals get pensions.
41 posted on 04/01/2015 2:39:15 PM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V. If not now, when?)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Department of Obstruction of Justice


42 posted on 04/01/2015 2:47:09 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Congress should NOT confirm any AG appointee UNTIL THEY AGREE TO PURSUE CHARGES AGAINST LERNER, KOSKINEN, AND ALL THE OTHER LAWLESS SCUMBAGS SERVING UNDER O-BLAME-A.

Not having an AG is probably something Barry would like, then he can use this shortfall to justify his lawlessness.

43 posted on 04/01/2015 2:54:04 PM PDT by CivilWarBrewing
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To: SeekAndFind

We live in a fascist dictatorship so no surprise.


44 posted on 04/01/2015 2:58:22 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: SeekAndFind

No one should worry about this. Trey Gowdy, Louis Gomert, and all the other Republican congressmen will nail her... /s ;-(


45 posted on 04/01/2015 2:58:31 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s as if Janet Reno never left.


46 posted on 04/01/2015 3:01:25 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (The War on Drugs is Big Government statism)
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To: SeekAndFind

Kneel! Kneel, you taxpayer swine! Kneel before your government employee masters! Provide them with fragrant offerings of bribes and bonuses lest their wrath fall upon you!


47 posted on 04/01/2015 3:08:35 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SeekAndFind

Unbelievable


48 posted on 04/01/2015 3:11:37 PM PDT by CPT Clay (Follow me on Twitter @Clay N TX)
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To: SeekAndFind

Where’s all the FR hand-wringers who bitch at Issa and Gowdy for not doing anything? These people are too dense to realize, under our current form of Republican government, that Congress can’t indict criminals in the executive branch without the assent of the executive.

Our Founders made an error in not giving Congress armed muscle to take out a criminal executive branch.


49 posted on 04/01/2015 3:39:08 PM PDT by sergeantdave
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To: SeekAndFind
You do know Mr. Ronald Machen, that one day you won't be able to suck Holder's di@k, right? Or Barry's too, right?

Oops. Sorry Machen, looking at your bio, this might be a resume enhancer to Cuomo or Hillary...hmmm.

5.56mm

50 posted on 04/01/2015 3:53:24 PM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: SeekAndFind

Of course not.

Vigilante justice is the ONLY way to take care of these petty tyrants.

EFF these people!


51 posted on 04/01/2015 4:28:07 PM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: SeekAndFind

Lerner is a good soldier who has kept her mouth shut. The Regime will protect her.


52 posted on 04/01/2015 4:42:37 PM PDT by TigersEye (STONE COLD ZOMBIE SCOURGE)
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To: SeekAndFind

I am. I thought Machen was an honorable DA but he turned out to be just another Obama/Holder buttkisser.

Now if Trey Gowdy is smart, he would subpoena Machen to address each of the 17 or so points that Gowdy says Lerner made in her opening statement that were causes for a finding that she waived her Fifth Amendment rights.

Machen only she that she mentioned a couple generalities, not specifics. It would be a nice scene, with Gowdy playing the Indians at Little Big Horn and Machen playing Gen. Custer.

In would root for the Indians in this case, and I’m not talking about the Washington Redskins.

Common on Darrell Issa, help out here.


53 posted on 04/01/2015 4:48:45 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (madmax)
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To: SeekAndFind

There should be a pool on who Barry issues pardons on his last day.

Holder
Lerner
Jarrett
Cummins
....to name a few


54 posted on 04/01/2015 5:02:27 PM PDT by PhiloBedo (You gotta roll with the punches and get with what's real.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.


55 posted on 04/01/2015 5:29:29 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Ted Cruz 2016)
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To: SeekAndFind

Just another injustice of the liberal left supported by the injustice dept of America and all those that scorn all of America’s laws and the Constitution in their rage and hate . Lerner will stand before the judge of all the earth in the resurrection of the unjust and will go where all the haters of God and their fellow man will go for their hatred and evil and unbelief. It is a consolation knowing that Lerner and all the workers of iniquity, unless she gets saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone, will eventually pay for the evils done during her vain and arrogant and cruel lifetime. The lake of fire will be full of those who will weep and gnash their teeth.


56 posted on 04/01/2015 5:44:26 PM PDT by kindred (The time of America may be short, but Israel will come to fruition under God.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Tyranny is always legal, until it’s at the end of the rope.


57 posted on 04/01/2015 5:51:27 PM PDT by The Toll
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To: SeekAndFind

You know what happens when laws are not followed?

People take the law into their own hands.

Perhaps the DOJ hadn’t figured on that result.


58 posted on 04/02/2015 6:07:19 AM PDT by Candor7 (Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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