DOJ: No Contempt Charge Against Former IRS Official Lois Lerner - East Idaho News
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DOJ: No Contempt Charge Against Former IRS Official Lois Lerner

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Getty 040115 LoisLerner?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1427931720162BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Justice cleared former Internal Revenue Service senior official Lois Lerner from a congressional contempt referral related to her appearances before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in connection with accusations that Tea Party groups had been unfairly targeted by the IRS when applying for tax-exempt status.

In an appearance before the Committee in March 2013, Lerner read a statement of innocence while also invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to testify. About a year later, she again appeared before the committee and pleaded the Fifth. Shortly after, the House voted to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday explaining that while the committee was right to reject Lerner’s claim of Fifth Amendment privilege, she had not waived that privilege “by making general claims of innocence.”

“The Constitution would provide Ms. Lerner with an absolute defense if she were prosecuted for contempt,” a Department of Justice statement read. “The team of career prosecutors determined that it is not appropriate for a United States Attorney to present a matter to the grand jury where the Constitution forecloses a prosecution.”

House Republicans, including chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, criticized the decision. Chaffetz argued that the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia “attempted to absolve Ms. Lerner of her actions by substituting his judgement for that of the full House of Representatives.”


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