It couldn't happen to a nicer person! That is our feeling toward Lois Lerner, the lady in charge of denying tax-exempt status to conservative, Tea Party and patriot groups while green lighting progressive and Obama supporting groups. If she is held in contempt, could that exact enough pressure on her to make her flip? Can she be the reason for Obama's downfall? Does she know where her instructions came from? Will the Republicans push hard enough to make this happen?
These are all great questions, unfortunately we cannot predict things in Washington. We would hope that she could be turned into an informant and that she would spill the beans and name names. If so, maybe we can find out who gave the instructions.
Can the Republicans be depended upon to make the tough decision to go after her or will they wimp out? You tell us what you think.
Conservative Tom
Alan Dershowitz: IRS Chief Lerner 'Can Be Held in Contempt'
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 06:40 PM
"She's in trouble. She can be held in contempt," Dershowitz told "the Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"Congress . . . can actually hold you in contempt and put you in the Congressional jail."Lerner, grilled Wednesday on the IRS' targeting of conservative organizations, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination — but not before insisting "I have done nothing wrong." Her brief statement of innocence has opened a legal Pandora's Box, according to Dershowitz.
"You can't simply make statements about a subject and then plead the Fifth in response to questions about the very same subject," the renowned Harvard Law professor said.
"Once you open the door to an area of inquiry, you have waived your Fifth Amendment right . . . you've waived your self-incrimination right on that subject matter."
He said the fact that Lerner went ahead with her proclamation of could be considered malpractice on the part of her attorney — although it's possible she overruled the advice she received.
"It should never have been allowed. She should have been told by her attorney that the law is clear, that once you open up an area of inquiry for interrogation, you have to respond," he said.
"Now she may have made a political decision that it's worth it to take the risk . . . That's just not the way the law works. It may be the way politics works . . . but she can't invoke the Fifth."
He said the issue goes back to the "bad old days" of McCarthyism, during hearings in which suspected Communists were grilled by the House on American Activities Committee and Senate committees.
"[They] tried to trap people by saying, look, you're a Fifth Amendment communist, you won't answer any questions," he said.
"And the people would say we'd love to answer your questions but we can't because if we do, we waive [our rights] and then you'll ask us who our friends are and who else was a member of the Communist Party . . .
"The law is as clear as could be, that once you open up an area of inquiry, you can't shut off the spigot – that's the metaphor that the Supreme Court has used."
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I agree. She should go to prison for contempt. That's one way to get rid of her. Jack Lew should have fired her already, or at least put her on suspension while Werfel gets settled in and begins cleaning house.
ReplyDelete--David