Tuesday, May 21, 2013

White House Schemed with IRS; Lerner will take the 5th

Honest to God, people who hold up liquor stores provide better alibis than do the White House and the IRS. Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS has lawyered up and will take the 5th when she testifies tomorrow. Two weeks ago we were told by the IRS leadership that she was some sort of an apolitical technocrat. Then it's revealed that her spontaneous confession was a contrived performance with a planted question. Now according to her attorney she's innocent but afraid to make that claim under oath.
William W. Taylor III, Learner's lawyer who specializes in criminal rather than tax law, wrote to Congressman Issa explaining, “She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.”
Taylor goes on in the letter to ask that Lerner be excused from appearing before the committee to spare her the pain and embarrassment. An appearance would, according to Taylor “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.”
I'm sure no one would want to see her burdened or embarrassed.
Over at the White House that in the beginning only knew that the inspector general's report would be coming soon on April 22 and then April 16 is doing revisions that would do the Benghazi talking points proud. According to the Hill the White House and the IRS schemed strategized how to tell the public. Honest Jay Carney said that Mark Childress, the White House deputy chief of staff, twice spoke with Lois Lerner, the IRS official who oversaw the agency's tax-exempt organization, about the strategy for revealing conservative targeting.
Childress and Lerner discussed the possibility that either Lerner would reveal that an inspector general's investigation had found misconduct in a speech or that then-acting IRS director Steve Miller could receive questions about the IG investigation in congressional testimony.
According to Carney, the pair discussed “what [Miller] would say” if asked about the issue.
My question is the same as John Boehner's aide, Brendan Buck who tweeted;
“Why are we still learning new information about how the White House was involved in the IRS audit?”

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