http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/03/05/lois-lerner%E2%80%99s-attorney-case-over-nowBy: Patrick Howley (Daily Caller)
Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s attorney Bill Taylor held a press briefing Wednesday after his client pleaded the Fifth Amendment at a House Oversight hearing, prompting Oversight chairman Rep. Darrell Issa to adjourn the hearing. It remains unclear whether Issa will seek to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress.
Taylor told The Daily Caller and other reporters that Lerner has not waived her Fifth Amendment rights as Issa claimed and that Lerner believes the entire issue is over for her now. Taylor also said that he did not read Issa’s most recent report but is sure that it is inaccurate and that Lerner’s attempt to delay her testimony was intended to give her “a breather” of seven more days after a ten-month scandal.
Here are ten takeaways from the press briefing:
1. Taylor claimed that Lerner has not waived her Fifth Amendment rights
Chairman Issa noted at Wednesday’s hearing that the committee found Lerner had waived her Fifth Amendment rights when she attested to her innocence at a May 2013 hearing.
Taylor said that there is “no serious concern that Ms. Lerner waived her rights under the Fifth Amendment…The law is so clear…She is relying on the advice of her counsel that she has not waived” her Fifth Amendment rights.
2. Lerner’s attempt to get a one-week delay on her testimony was intended to give her “a breather”
Taylor claimed that Lerner was fully willing to testify in one week but not at Wednesday’s Oversight hearing. The purpose of the proposed one-week delay was to give Lerner “a breather.”
Lerner has been under subpoena since May 2013.
