So here’s what you missed at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing today… Um, nothing.
Yet again, Lois Lerner, the former Director of Tax-Exempt Organizations at the Internal Revenue Service refused to answer questions about her role in a scandal that brought IRS under scrutiny.
Lerner originally exercised her Fifth Amendment right not to testify in a May 2013 hearing before Congress. At that time, Lerner was warned by the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), that he may wish to see her back again – which of course meant: you will be back again. At the time, I surmised that “[w]hen she comes back, it won’t be as the Director of the Exempt Organizations Division at IRS but rather as Lois Lerner, member of the private sector.” That turned out to be true: after being placed on administrative leave, Lerner eventually retired.
Despite the fact that Chairman Issa implied that he would call Lerner back shortly after the August hearing, he waited nearly nine months to do so. And this time, the result wasn’t any different.
Rather than give a speech in which she invoked her Fifth Amendment right (which Chairman Issa said constituted a waiver of her rights), Lerner responded to questions over and over by saying:
On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer that question.
Chairman Issa, clearly annoyed, finally adjourned the hearing, noting, “I can see no point in going further.” After the hearing, Chairman Issa indicated that contempt charges were possible, a possibility that has been raised before.
Lerner, through her counsel, William Taylor of Zuckerman Spaeder, had a different take on the day’s events. Taylor said, about the proceedings:
We lost confidence in the fairness and the impartiality of the forum… It is completely partisan. There was no possibility in my view that Ms. Lerner would be given a fair opportunity to speak or to answer questions or to tell the truth.
To date, no criminal charges have been filed in connection with the investigation, which is ongoing.
