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Top IRS official will invoke Fifth Amendment

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mystery-ak:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-top-irs-official-fifth-amendment-20130521,0,6325957,print.story

latimes.com
Top IRS official will invoke Fifth Amendment

By Richard Simon and Joseph Tanfani

12:15 PM PDT, May 21, 2013

WASHINGTON – A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening – or why she didn’t reveal it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor 3rd.

Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight committee Wednesday.



“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif. The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

Taylor, a criminal defense attorney from the Washington firm of Zuckerman Spaeder, said that the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation, and that the House committee has asked Lerner to explain why she provided “false or misleading information” to the committee four times last year.

Since Lerner won’t answer questions, Taylor asked that she be excused from appearing, saying that would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.” There was no immediate word whether the committee will grant her request.



According to an inspector general’s report, Lerner found out in June 2011 that some staff in the nonprofits division in Cincinnati had used terms like “Tea Party” and “Patriots” to select some applications for additional screening of their political activities. She ordered changes.

But neither Lerner nor anyone else at the IRS told Congress, even after repeated queries from several committees, including House Oversight, about whether some groups had been singled out unfairly.

GourmetDan:

--- Quote from: mystery-ak on May 21, 2013, 08:09:15 pm ---Since Lerner won’t answer questions, Taylor asked that she be excused from appearing, saying that would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.” There was no immediate word whether the committee will grant her request.

--- End quote ---

That seems like a legitimate purpose to me...

mystery-ak:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/05/21/IRS-Scandal-Lois-Lerner-To-Invoke-Fifth-Amendment

Top IRS Official to Plead Fifth



 by John Nolte 21 May 2013, 12:49 PM PDT 21 post a comment
Tuesday afternoon a bombshell was dropped into the already explosive IRS scandal when it was reported that Lois Lerner, a top IRS official in the non-profit division that paralyzed Tea Party groups with ongoing harassment, would invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions during Congressional testimony schedule before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

The LA Times reports that Lerner will refuse to answer any questions about what she knows about the targeting of conservative groups. She will also refuse to explain why she is refusing to answer questions.

Lerner has retained defense attorney William W. Taylor 3rd, who sent a letter to Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee. In the letter Taylor said, "She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.”

Taylor is hoping Issa will excuse his client from having to testify in order to save her the embarrassment of having to invoke the Fifth in public. Per The L.A. Times, the committee hasn't yet answered her request one way or the other.

Since the IRS scandal broke wide open ten days ago, Lerner has been at the center of the controversy. She is not only the head of the division that oversaw the Kafka-esque harassment of President Obama's political foes, she has also been caught on numerous occasions making misleading statements.

Lerner was also part of the fumbled attempt to control how the scandal was made public with a planted question at an American Bar Association meeting. Lerner followed that debacle up with a phone call with journalists where she attempted to downplay the scandal and laughed off the fact she didn't understand math.

Lerner's testimony had been widely anticipated. What she knows is considered key to finding out the answer to the one question we still don’t know the answer to: Who okayed in the this partisan harassment and who participated in it.

truth_seeker:
She's already bungled the Kabuki Theater, so they want her kept off the stage.

Cincinnatus:
We'll see. According to a professor at Rutgers School of Law writing in the WaPo:

First is the inherent power of Congress to require testimony on matters within its legislative oversight jurisdiction.

So long as Congress is investigating issues over which it has the power to legislate, it can compel witnesses to appear and respond to questions. That power has been affirmed over and over in prosecutions for contempt.

This opinion piece, it ought be noted, was written in July, 2007, and referred to possible testimony about wrong doing by President Bush. So if it's sauce for the goose...

If she refuses to testify, according to the writer, Congress itself can hold her in contempt and incarcerate her until she decides to cooperate. Remember Susan McDougal?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072001802_2.html

It also seems obligatory that Obama immediately fire any government employee who takes the fifth during an investigation. It would be the right thing to do, but will he?

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