Posted on 04/08/2014 3:37:53 AM PDT by markomalley
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday plans to vote on the resolution below to hold former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the panel.
Lerner, who headed an IRS division that reviews tax-exemption applications, has twice invoked her Fifth Amendment right when asked to testify about the agency’s targeting of certain nonprofit advocacy groups for extra scrutiny based on their names and policy positions.
The outcome of the upcoming contempt vote is all but assured for the Republican-controlled committee, which already determined in a party-line vote last year that Lerner waived her right not to testify by declaring innocence before declining to answer questions at a June 2013 hearing.
The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), has argued that Republicans cannot legally pursue contempt charges against the former IRS official because they did not explicitly overrule her Fifth Amendment assertion or clearly direct her to answer the committee’s questions.
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) contends that Cummings is “wrong on the facts and the law.” He said the committee effectively overruled Lerner’s Fifth Amendment by voting that she had waived her Fifth Amendment right, and that his office advised Lerner that she could face contempt charges if she refused to answer questions at a March hearing.
The House’s general counsel issued a memo last week largely agreeing with Issa’s position, but 25 legal experts, including a former House attorney and three former Supreme Court clerks, have backed Cummings’ theory.
Even if the committee votes in favor of the contempt resolution, the full House would still need to vote on the matter before Lerner could face meaningful consequences. To understand more about how this works…
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Drafting a resolution is one thing, passing and ENFORCING IT is another.
Wait and see, this will eventually go NO WHERE! DOJ will not enforce it OR, odumbo will pardon her immediately.
Good Luck. We shouldn’t hold our breath.
25 lawyers. Ha....
During the Clinton LEWINSKY SCANDALs, a full page ad was printed. In this ad, 400 Constitutional Scholars (their assertion) effectively stated that a Bl@w J@b is not a high crime or misdemeanor, therefore not impeachable.
Among them, the noted historian and NPR/PBS/Liberal Rag mouthpieceforliberaldomwhentheyneedanhistorian, Dr. Doris Kearns Goodwin. She said a Bl@w J@b isn’t a misdeanor - even one that is given under a desk in the Oval Office as the President is discussing our military with a US Congressman.
25 lawyers indeed. My ass.
Dept of JustUs has nothing to do with it, as it is an internal House thing, and is completely separate from the executive branch. When jail is involved, is is specified as a "common jail".
odumbo will pardon...
Can not do. Again, it is an offense against the House, not of the US... pardon's have no bearing.
Yep, Holder wears his contempt citation as a badge of honor. Until the House actually jails someone, this is just kabuki theater.
Only 25? Oh well...yeah, just like 33,000 scientists back global warming.../s
No one escapes Issa and the House Oversight Inquisition.
Like Holder, I see a Comfy Chair in Lerner’s future.
(Sit in it! Are you comfortable? Now!? Scrunch down!)
never mind.
Reading the report now.
Lois has had plenty of time to learn the intricacies of “under the bus” comfort and travel.
A bigger question relates to the discussion between Cummins and Issa regarding Cummins backdoor talks with Lerner’s lawyer. That could lead to a slew of Contempt of Congress hits.
Issa and his guys may be playing Rope-a-dope to drag this out to just before November and then have Lois singing like a bird at the perfect time.
They were correct. However, Clinton was not impeached for that. He was impeached for perjury.
In other words this is going to be a non event.
I realized that. However, one still can see the utterly duplicitous behavior of these so-called ‘scholars,’ can’t one?
Also, what do you think about a President that gets one of these BJs under his desk while he is talking on the phone to a Republican Congressman about US Forces deployment, etc. Do you not think that is a high crime or misdemeanor?
But then, you knew that too. You're so smart I should just shut up and read.
=;^)
These ‘scholars’ and liberals are counting on us old farts to begin to ‘not remember’ what they actually said and in what surrounding context they tried to fool us all.
They are counting on their opposition to give up and forget. I will not. Not as long as I’m alive, even though getting old enough to forget some things would be a benefit, as in getting to the point when all my DVDs become ‘brand new’ again. :o)
This is all for show- Lois Lerner’s pardon is ready for the community organizer to sign whenever needed.
Unfortunately for billy jeff and the 400 scholars, he was not impeached for a Bl@w J@b; he was impeached for commiting perjury, subourning perjery, and obstruction of justice.
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