June 28, 2013

"Darrell Issa’s committee says Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights..."

"... but her attorney says she isn’t going down without a fight."
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 22-17 on Friday that the embattled IRS official voluntarily waived her rights by reading an opening statement during a hearing last month on the agency’s tea party targeting scandal.

24 comments:

Mark said...

Congressional panels can vote on your rights. Love that small government.

William said...

Feckless. I repeat, feckless.

test said...

“A party line vote does not affect anyone’s constitutional rights and this one does not affect Ms. Lerner’s,” Taylor said in the statement.

It does seem some court would have to rule on this. Federal court seems right, she's alleging a violation of her civil rights.

test said...

Mark said...
Congressional panels can vote on your rights. Love that small government.


Maybe it would be more accurate to think of this as the committee voting to test whether she waived her rights.

edutcher said...

Watch her jump if some SEAL Team guy in the back of the room yells, "Surf's up!!!".

jacksonjay said...


Do we get extra points if we read thoughtfully and catch the word play, double entendre!

"but her attorney says she isn’t going down without a fight."

As Bevis would say, "she said going down, hehehehe!"

Clyde said...

She's a slow Lerner.

SteveR said...

Yes by all means lets resolve this issue in regards to congressional testimony. Not that it will get us any closer to determining what happened in this case. From my non legal perspective I think you need to pick one or the other, make a statement-testify or plead the fifth.

rhhardin said...

I'd say she didn't waive her rights.

She can refuse to testify any old time.

They can prosecute her without her evidence for some crime, or offer her immunity and prosecute her for not testifying, but the immunity offer has to come first.

Bob Loblaw said...

Congressional panels can vote on your rights. Love that small government.

Congress is a co-equal branch to the judiciary. They certainly have the authority to curtail the kind of gamesmanship we've seen from the most crooked administration since Nixon.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Fly me to Hong Kong... In Other words.

Anonymous said...

As I recall,

1. The House has to vote on contempt charges
2. refers to DoJ
3. DoJ makes a political decision on whether to attempt to move forward
4. a Judge makes a contempt ruling


There are more steps and players here...

AllenS said...

Go ahead, Althouse, you're the law professor. Did she or didn't she waive her Fifth Amendment rights? Try answering one of these for a change. I'm tired of having to be the in-house lawyer. And, may I add, unpaid.

Methadras said...

Awesome. Great. Fabulous. Are any of these people going to be prosecuted for what they've done? If the answer is no, then generating anymore outrage is meaningless and detrimental.

Anonymous said...

She may have inadvertently waived her fifth amendment rights but she can still keep her mouth shut. It might well be better to stay silent and do the time for 'contempt', which is neither a felony nor a misdemeanor.

gk1 said...

I was thinking the same thing as Methandras. Who cares? Can the groups she victimized sue her worthless ass back the stone age? We know the DOJ isn't going to do jack shit about Lerner.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

She's a holy democrat - untouchable! Corrupt to the core. You can't touch her!

kentuckyliz said...

What is the surprise, shock, outrage? I recall previous cases which said partial testifying and statements = no pleading the fifth. Don't ask me which cases, my memory sucks.

kentuckyliz said...

"Slow Lerner" FTW.

Throw her in jail for contempt until she's ready to testify. If she chooses to die in jail, Obama will tweet something nice at her funeral.

Jim Gust said...

My boss asked me the other day about some aspect of my job performance, and I told him "I plead the Fifth Amendment." Boss got really mad, so mad he made me stop working while he continued to pay me my full salary.

Then I woke up, it was only a dream.

Paul said...

Regardless of what her lawyer says, she IS going down!

William said...

The fact is that she pled the fifth and has not been fired. Now she will be cast as the victim of vindictive Rethuglicans and not as the beneficiary of negligent Demolaxes. Mmph.

Achilles said...

Mark said...
Congressional panels can vote on your rights. Love that small government.

6/28/13, 4:21 PM

So you are supportive of the IRS and its intimidation of Obama's political opponents? Do you still support the Obama administration? Do you view the democrat party as anything less than fascist thugs?

Mark said...

Achilles, politicians are thugs. Doesn't matter which letter is next to their name.