jahbrudda
Well-Known Member
[h=2]She's a key figure in the controversy over how the agency treated conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
[/h]
WASHINGTON Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner will testify about the IRS handling of Tea Party cases only in exchange for an immunity agreement, her lawyer told a congressional committee Wednesday.
Until then, Lerner will not answer questions unless ordered to do so by a federal judge, her attorney said.
The response from attorney William Taylor came the day after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ordered Lerner to reappear at a hearing next week. When Lerner appeared before the committee last May, she asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
She originally attributed the actions to low-level workers in Cincinnati, but those workers have since told congressional investigators that they were acting on orders from Washington.
Lerner retired from the IRS in September.
Taylor said calling Lerner to testify knowing she would invoke the Fifth Amendment "accomplishes nothing and needlessly embarrasses the witness." He said Lerner has received recent death threats, and so recalling her is "not only improper but dangerous."
Last June, the Oversight Committee ruled by a 22-17 vote that Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights by giving an opening statement and answering a question at last May's hearing.
If there's not a smidgen of corruption, as President Obama claimed while on national TV, what is she worried about?
I thought you only asked for immunity from prosecution, to escape criminal liability.
[/h]
WASHINGTON Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner will testify about the IRS handling of Tea Party cases only in exchange for an immunity agreement, her lawyer told a congressional committee Wednesday.
Until then, Lerner will not answer questions unless ordered to do so by a federal judge, her attorney said.
The response from attorney William Taylor came the day after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ordered Lerner to reappear at a hearing next week. When Lerner appeared before the committee last May, she asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
She originally attributed the actions to low-level workers in Cincinnati, but those workers have since told congressional investigators that they were acting on orders from Washington.
Lerner retired from the IRS in September.
Taylor said calling Lerner to testify knowing she would invoke the Fifth Amendment "accomplishes nothing and needlessly embarrasses the witness." He said Lerner has received recent death threats, and so recalling her is "not only improper but dangerous."
Last June, the Oversight Committee ruled by a 22-17 vote that Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights by giving an opening statement and answering a question at last May's hearing.
If there's not a smidgen of corruption, as President Obama claimed while on national TV, what is she worried about?
I thought you only asked for immunity from prosecution, to escape criminal liability.
