HOUSE HOLDS EX-IRS OFFICIAL LOIS LERNER IN CONTEMPT, the Washington Examiner reports:
The House on Wednesday voted to hold a former Internal Revenue Service official in contempt for her refusal to answers questions about the agency’s conservative-targeting scandal.
Lois Lerner headed the agency’s Exempt Organizations division when it controversially targeted conservative nonprofit groups applying for tax-exempt status. But she has repeatedly refused to answer questions when called before Republican-led House committees investigating the scandal, citing her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination.
The GOP-run House, along a partisan-line vote of 231-187, passed a resolution holding her in contempt of Congress for not cooperating with the committees. Only six Democrats voted in support of the charge, while no Republicans voted against it.
“Which means that the matter will now be referred to the Department of Justice,” Erika Johnsen writes at Hot Air. “Which is captained by Attorney General Eric Holder. Who, by the way, is also in contempt of Congress. So… yeah. If she’s ever tried and convicted, Lerner could face fines up to $100,000 and even a up to a year of jail time, but we’ll see where that goes.”
“Oh, man, speaking as a partisan political hack,” Moe Lane quips, “it’d be a real shame if Eric Holder’s Justice Department tried to do a whitewash of political corruption in an election year. An absolute shame. I mean, I can’t see at all how we could take advantage of that move…”
Related: Nuts & Bolts: Contempt of Congress.