Posted on 5/22/2013, 1:06:33 AM by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Can’t do better than Popehat’s wry take:
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Popehat @Popehat
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Top IRS official will invoke 5th Amendment
WASHINGTON — A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper... Los Angeles Times @latimes
IRS Official to Reaffirm Importance of Constitutional Rights In Response To Congressional Inquiry http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-top-irs-official-fifth-amendment-20130521,0,6645565.story …
Hey, remember when Steve Miller insisted there’s nothing illegal about the IRS targeting a particular political faction for extra scrutiny? He was wrong, potentially: There are civil-rights laws in play as well as the Hatch Act, plus some of the IRS’s own regulations for employee conduct. Lois Lerner and her lawyer know the score:
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…
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.
No dice: Darrell Issa’s subpoenaing her anyway, which is precisely the right thing to do. Ask the full slate of questions, many of which will no doubt focus on the endless lies she told when this began two weeks ago, and let her sit there and refuse to answer each one serially on grounds that she might incriminate herself. Let the cable-news viewing public get a good hard dose of that tomorrow and see how it plays. By the way, if you missed Mark Hemingway’s piece yesterday about Lerner’s history at the FEC, correct that now. While there, she went after the Christian Coalition so doggedly (it was ultimately cleared after incurring huge expenses in fighting the agency) that upon hearing she’d moved to the IRS, the group’s lead counsel claims he thought, “Wow, this means the not for profit division is gearing up politically.” And now here we are.
We’re also here, courtesy of Carney’s latest briefing:
Just a day after telling reporters that chief of staff Denis McDonough had learned of the situation about a month ago, press secretary Jay Carney revealed that White House officials had consulted with the IRS on how to initially present to the public the story that the agency had targeted conservative tax-exempt groups for extra scrutiny.
There was “discussion about the possibility of a speech” by Lois Lerner, who oversaw the IRS’s work on tax-exempt groups, Carney said, and conversation about testimony by the acting commissioner of the agency and “what he would say” if asked about the issue…
The press secretary said the Treasury Department worked with Mark Childress, a deputy White House chief of staff.
Day by day, he’s admitting to a bit more White House involvement in stage managing the IG report than he’d previously let on. First he acknowledged that White House counsel had a general heads up on the report in April; then he said Kathryn Ruemmler had been told the key details about targeting conservatives; then he admitted that Ruemmler had told Obama’s chief of staff; now he’s admitting that they chatted with Treasury about how Lerner should go about fake-apologizing to the public. Sure would be nice to hear from her what input she got from Dennis McDonough, but I guess we’ll have to settle for a humiliating pleading o’ the Fifth. And incidentally, is there anyone who still seriously believes that White House senior staff were sufficiently involved in this the past few weeks that they would advise Treasury on how to frame the IG revelations for public consumption, and yet … never once mention it to Obama? Is there any coherent explanation for that apart from deliberately shielding him, even at the expense of keeping him in the dark about key developments in his own administration?
Via the Standard, two lowlights from today’s testimony by former IRS Commission Doug Shulman. He’d like you to know (a) that he’s sad but has nothing to be sorry about, and (b) like everyone else thus far, he simply has no idea who came up with the idea of focusing on conservative groups.
Only guilty people plead the 5th...
Your “transparent” IRS in action. Just think! They’ll be making your healthcare decisions for you after they finish pleading the Fifth Amendment. WHAT A COUNTRY!
‘Taylor asked that she be excused from appearing, saying that would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.”’
Well, golly, we wouldn’t want to embarrass or burden her. Let’s just drop the whole matter since it was just those despicable conservatives who were targeted. It’s not like THEY have any rights.
GUILT AS CHARGED. IT CAME DIRECTLY FROM THE White House and David Axelrod.
this is not America and the media are ignoring all of this even when it’s done to their own.
DOJ,
IRS
White house
wiretapping,
guns to Mexico
dead Americans
DOE
cover ups
spying
white house closed why?
donors having parties at our house still
the list goes on and on and not a frigging much of a peep from the stupid cowardly party and most of the media.
Just got back from the store and one guy has not heard anything about any of this I mentioned, it seems the media are doing a fine ob of protecting their messiah and ignoring the law being broken
Actually am I and just a couple of others understanding that this is not America and only happens in fascist and communist countries and happened in NAZI Germany ?
Even some on here seem to not think this is much, though they maybe watch MSNBC with the other cult of obama
Obama used his IRS to rig the election. The IRS prevented many tea party groups from getting started .Obama’s IRS stole the election of 2012. the IRS stole the senate for democrats/socialists and there were many more socialists/democrats that got elected to the House than if the tea party would have been allowed to get out the vote for conservative R’s
The IRS Cheetahs don’t answer to no stinkin Congress!!!
why has no one been arrested over Benghazi, spying, wiretaps, DOJ, DOE, IRS white house.
Nixon stepped down over less and whole internet should be flooded all of this and yet it’s not, local papers are not mentioning much, national news , what a joke they are and have bene for years now
Drip, drip, drip.
As Kirsten Powers asked, “can I plead the 5th when I get audited?”
Lerner: “On the advice of counsel, I refuse to answer on the grounds it may tend to incriminate me.”
Issa: “So you ARE engaged in the overthrow of the government.”
Lerner: “On the advice of counsel, I refuse to answer on the grounds it may tend to incriminate me.”
she is one of the few on th eleft who actually loves this country and wants answers, unlike the lunatics on th eleft who keep trying to say this is a witch hunt and ignore if Bush had done this they too would be outraged and rightly so
Lerner works for the IRS and they put the fear of God into people every day asking them to verify their returns.
Now this public official refuses to answer questions about possible wrong doing on the IRSs part, this is despicable.
I’m a little vague on the 5th.
Is there any verbiage in there that precludes shooting a person named Lois Lerner taking the fifth? Just curious...
Heh heh heh...
Giuliani just made an excellent point. The 5th is invoked to prevent self-incrimination.
This de facto means there was criminal activity, and I smell the stink of corruption coming from the White Hut!
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