Posted: 04/10/2014 at 6:09pm | IP Logged

Panel Holds Former IRS Official in Contempt

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Source: CBN News

WASHINGTON - Former IRS official Lois Lerner is now being held in contempt of Congress after refusing to testify in the Tea Party-targeting scandal.

Thursday's 21-12 vote by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee came after months of congressional hearings and a morning of heated debate.

Lerner was head of the IRS tax-exempt division when the agency targeted the Tea Party and other conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

So far, she has denied any wrongdoing. In a previous House hearing, she refused to answer questions about the scandal.

"On the advice of my council I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question," Lerner testified before the panel in March.

***Now that the decision to hold Lerner in contempt has come down, what happens next? Matthew Clark, associate counsel with the American Center for Law and Justice, answers that and more on CBN Newswatch, April 10.

Committee Chairman Daryl Issa, R-Calif., said by withholding her testimony Lerner is standing in the way of lawmakers trying to bring the truth to the American people.

But Democrats say Lerner isn't the one to blame, insisting Issa himself has mishandled the investigation.

"I think we may have misplaced the blame," Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said. "The only reason we haven't been able to get the truth from Lois Lerner is because of one person and that is our chairman."

"Now, like many of you I want to hear from Lois Lerner," he continued. "I want to get the facts, but because of the manner in which the investigation has been handled by our chairman, we can't get those facts."

Thursday's decision to hold Lerner in contempt comes just one day after the House committee voted to refer her case to the Justice Department for prosecution. The committee said she violated the rights of conservative groups and misled investigators.

Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., said Lerner tried to have the groups' applications denied.

In addition, a congressional report cites former IRS agents who say liberal groups were not targeted in the same way.

"This wasn't an equal opportunity discrimination," Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, said. "This was targeted discrimination coming from the Internal Revenue Service."

"What I'd like to address now is our view -- is that that determination came from the highest levels of the IRS," Sekulow charged.

Lawyers for the conservative groups believe politics is behind Lerner's actions.

"I think the IRS is going to do everything it can to silence anybody in America who wants to talk about how elected officials voted on Obamacare," said Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer representing several Tea Party groups.

"I actually believe that that is the fundamental reason for all of this effort," she added.

But Democrats say Republicans are practicing partisan politics by pressing charges against Lerner.