Free Republic

Lois Lerner didn’t just take the Fifth. She gave a little speech first saying she had done nothing wrong. That certainly opens her up to some questions, although the extent to which it does is debatable. Imagine the following sequence of questions: 1) Did you do anything wrong? 2) Do you think that it would be wrong to target conservative groups because of their ideology? 3) Did you target conservative groups because of their ideology? Given that Lois Lerner gave an opening statement in which she said that she had not done anything wrong, it would be interesting to see...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The IRS hearings today, the Issa committee. Folks, yesterday, after the Apple tax hearings at the Senate, I said, "This is all just a game," and I think this thing that happened this morning with Lois Lerner showing up... Issa basically let her get away with it. She's gone. He looked clueless, like didn't know what was going on, didn't know how to deal with this. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Okay, let me tell you what happened today at the IRS hearings. Lois Lerner, who ran the whole kit and caboodle and was... By the way, this was...

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said embattled IRS official Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights and will be hauled back to appear before his panel again. The California Republican said Lerner’s Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination was voided when she gave an opening statement this morning denying any wrongdoing and professing pride in her government service. “When I asked her her questions from the very beginning, I did so so she could assert her rights prior to any statement,” Issa told POLITICO. “She chose not to do so — so she waived.” Lerner triggered...

Excerpts from speech at Charity Law Conference in Toronto, Canada.

Lois Lerner, the IRS official now at the center of a scandal involving tax agents who selectively targeted conservative groups, is scheduled to receive an award and give the commencement address at Western New England University School of Law. A spokesperson for the school said the university was aware of the controversy, but would still honor Lerner, who directs the agency’s exempt organizations division. “Our plans have not changed at this time,” said David Stawasz, a spokesperson for the university, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Ms. Werner has apologized for the actions of certain IRS employees....

Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years. According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than three years, in some cases, for approval. Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval by granting...

Former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, running for Congress in District 22, no longer has U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, to rail against. West announced he’ll be running in District 18 this year. Frankel now chooses to ignore her most immediate opponents -- Kristin Jacobs, who she’ll be facing in the Democratic primary, and Adam Hasner, the presumed Republican nominee -- to set her sights on bigger game. The former mayor chose to redirect her anger and frustration at the entire U.S. House Republican leadership and the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. Well, no one can say she doesn’t set...