Lois “I Take the Fifth” Lerner Retires From IRS

From the Washington Times.

The Internal Revenue Service said Monday that Lois G. Lerner, the woman at the center of the tea party targeting scandal, has retired from the agency — though because of privacy rules it could say nothing more.

Ms. Lerner, who had been on paid administrative leave, was the director of the division that reviewed the applications for tax-exempt status from political groups over the past few years and that, according to an internal audit, gave extra scrutiny to tea party and other conservative groups.

She remains subject to congressional investigation.

Her actions put her at the center of the controversy, and several congressional committees had been looking into her behavior and into emails that seemed to suggest she was looking for reasons to deny political groups approval for tax-exempt status.

Last week, acting IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said he had asked both a review board and the agency’s inspector general to look at the emails.
……Lerner had previously refused to testify to Congress, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. But when she appeared before Congress she also delivered a brief statement claiming innocence, which some members of the House oversight committee said means she waived her right to silence.

Speaking of the emails, they prove she lied her ass off:

New documents emerged in the allegedly “phony” IRS scandal.These documents – emails from Lois Lerner, then Director of Exempt Organizations at the IRS – were short, but highly damaging to the IRS’s persistent (and pernicious) spin.

The first email, a February 1, 2011, message to – among others – Obama donor and fellow IRS executive Holly Paz, proclaims: “Tea Party matter very dangerous. This could be the vehicle to go to court on the issue over whether Citizen’s United overturning the ban on corporate spending applies to tax exempt rules . . . Cincy should probably NOT have these cases – Holly please see what they have please [sic].”

The next key email, sent on July 10, 2012 (just as the 2012 election season was truly heating up) came in response to an article forwarded to Lerner noting Democratic complaints that anonymous donors could be influencing Senate races.

Lerner’s immediate response? “Perhaps the FEC will save the day.”

Save the day from what? Democratic losses? Constitutionally-protected free speech?

Documents prove that the IRS targeted specific groups by name.

Newly uncovered IRS documents show the agency flagged political groups based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about “anti-Obama rhetoric,” inflammatory language and “emotional” statements made by non-profits seeking tax-exempt status.

The internal 2011 documents, obtained by USA TODAY, list 162 groups by name, with comments by Internal Revenue Service lawyers in Washington raising issues about their political, lobbying and advocacy activities. In 21 cases, those activities were characterized as “propaganda.”

Lerner was also caught on tape, discussing the pressure being put on the IRS to do something about the money being spent by conservatives on the election as a result of Citizens United.

At Obama’s direction, the IRS engaged in the deliberate suppression, harassment, and intimidation of patriotic and conservative groups, and those who focus on the Constitution and criticize government spending.

When is the impeachment?

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