Congress Has Power to Jail Lerner Under Criminal Contempt Statute

From Roll Call.

Former tax official Lois Lerner’s confrontation with Congress over a potential contempt citation may get emphatically more dramatic, depending on how far back into congressional history House Republicans want to reach.

Deep in the recesses of congressional power — and in precedent stretching back to the 18th century — is the ability to pursue “inherent contempt” against individuals, including the right to imprison a person in the Capitol to compel compliance with lawmakers’ authority.

Congress hasn’t exercised inherent contempt power since 1935 and there’s no suggestion that lawmakers are actively considering the option in Lerner’s case.

But House attorneys, and lawyers for the former Internal Revenue Service official, are looking at the potential legal paths as House leaders consider first whether to take a contempt citation to the floor and, if it passes, whether the Justice Department will pursue prosecution.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted on party lines to recommend the full House hold Lerner in contempt and refer her to the Justice Department for refusing to testify before the committee on allegations of political targeting at the IRS of conservative political groups seeking tax-exempt status. The GOP members said Lerner, who resigned from the IRS last year under fire for her role as the head of the office at the heart of the controversy, waived her Fifth Amendment privilege by delivering an opening statement declaring her innocence before the panel last year.

……Cantor suggested this week that a vote on whether to recommend a contempt prosecution against Lerner would likely come in May.

It’s not clear whether the Justice Department would pursue a prosecution, raising the question of what House Republicans will do if the contempt charge dies at the department. The inherent contempt authority leaves open the possibility that Congress can pursue the matter itself.

Link to Congress’s Contempt Power, HERE.

She’s not the only one that should be charged.  Obama knew what was going on and had a hand in it.

Under Obama’s direction, the IRS didn’t have any trouble defining his preference of sympathetic leftwing groups over Tea Party/GOP organizations.

Obama met with top IRS official William Wilkins before the targeting began.  As a matter of fact, a Cincinnati IRS employee testified that it was quite clear the orders came from D.C.

He belongs in a cell right next to her.

Related post:

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/house-holds-lois-lerner-in-contempt/