IRS official takes the 5th at congressional hearing

Posted by

CNN's Tom Cohen

Washington (CNN) - The Internal Revenue Service official who headed the division involved in targeting conservative groups invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination Wednesday and refused to answer questions from a congressional committee.

Lois Lerner read a statement at a House Oversight Committee hearing that declared she did nothing wrong and broke no laws before saying she would not answer any questions.

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Filed under: Darrell Issa • IRS

soundoff (106 Responses)

ghostriter

Independent, there is a difference between being responsible for an employee and being criminally liable. In other words, a CEO and a company is responsible civilly for anything done by that employee, but not criminally unless they can prove that said employee acted under orders of the company.

By your assertion, the CEO of Ford would be responsible for some nutcase on the assembly line who decided to use faulty brake lines. Yes, Ford would be civilly (I know that's probably not a word) liable, but not criminally.

You might wanna take some classes on comprehension as well.

May 22, 2013 04:53 pm at 4:53 pm |
Dan

Is is time to finally speak the truth about how the I.R.S. really operates?
The I.R.S. is the only function of our government that blatently violates just about every provision of the 5th amendment. The I.R.S. can and does impose sentence first, leaving the citizens to bear the burden of proving thier innocence.
In fact, the only way to get a trial is to first pay the tax. On top of it, the states are no better.
It's no wonder that Obamacare is "coincidentally" assigned to the I.R.S. for enforcement.
How much worse must it get before something gets done about it?

May 22, 2013 04:59 pm at 4:59 pm |
BinFL

@NonProfit – Hmm, remember that time when pretty much all the top nations' intelligence agencies thought that Iraq had WMDs? And the CIA and NSA was putting that into White House briefings? And when Pres. Bush used that as ONE of the reasons to form an international coalition in the UN to invade Iraq? And how all the liberals took all of that and made it into, "Bush lied, people died?" Yeah, that. Glass houses, stones, throwing, you

______________________________________
Yes, too bad Bush/Cheney kept trying to link 9/11 to Iraq – you guys simply gloss over that fact!!

May 22, 2013 05:09 pm at 5:09 pm |
Thomas

Lois Lerner, who was appointed by Bush in 2006 as head of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division.

She contributed $2,500 to Mitt Romney on 6/1/2012.

Sounds like an inside job , I'd take the fifth myself ..

She did nothing wrong , she just failed at what she was trying to do. . You might be able to get her on conspiracy if she was working with Issa for the last two years.Could even bring in Issa for questioning .

May 22, 2013 05:13 pm at 5:13 pm |
Thomas

@ust sayin
"I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules and regulations," Lerner said, adding that she never misled or lied to Congress, as contended by some legislators.
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then she has no reason whatsoever to plead the 5th. she's obviously lying or obstructing the investigation.

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Lois Lerner, who was appointed by Bush in 2006 as head of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division.

She contributed $2,500 to Mitt Romney on 6/1/2012.

She's a republican , she's on your team

just sayin . she's not going to drop a dime on who ever was paying her to create a controversy.

She's going to retire !

May 22, 2013 05:22 pm at 5:22 pm |
Jinx9to88

Funny how not one tax exempt application by the conservative or the tea party was denied by the IRS. So what are the Tea baggers crying about?

May 22, 2013 10:13 pm at 10:13 pm |