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Key
IRS official to take the Fifth
House oversight panel looking for
answers
Written
by Deirdre Shesgreen
May
22, 2013
WASHINGTON
— Lois Lerner, the embattled IRS official who played a
key role in the agency’s screening of tea party groups for additional
scrutiny,
will invoke the Fifth Amendment at a House oversight committee hearing
today,
according to a letter sent to the committee by her lawyer.
Attorney
William Taylor cited the criminal investigation into the
IRS’ decision to target tea party groups for greater scrutiny beginning
in
2010.
“She
has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but
under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,”
Taylor
wrote. He asked that his client be excused from appearing at the
hearing.
It’s
a move destined to frustrate Ohio GOP Congressman Jim Jordan.
Jordan
has been hounding the tax agency for 14 months – Lerner,
head of the IRS’ tax-exempt division, in particular – over the
treatment of tea
party groups after a tea party organization in his home district, the
Shelby
County Liberty group, came to him with stories about their dealings
with the
IRS.
It
was Shelby County Liberty’s story, in part, that prompted
Jordan and Rep. Darryl Issa, R-Calif., to request an Inspector General
audit of
the IRS. That audit is now at the center of a political firestorm
raging in
Washington.
Today’s
hearing – before the House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee – will be the third congressional hearing in six days
examining the
IRS’ handling of tax-exempt applications from conservative groups.
“Ms.
Lerner remains under subpoena from Chairman Issa to appear at
(today’s) hearing,” committee spokesman Ali Ahmad said. “Chairman Issa
remains
hopeful that she will ultimately decide to testify about her knowledge
of
outrageous IRS targeting of Americans for their political beliefs…
Read
the rest of the article at the Cincinnati
Enquirer
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