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House Votes To Hold Former IRS Official Lois Lerner In Contempt, Seek Special Prosecutor
Just 3 days short of the one year anniversary of Lois Lerner refusal to testify about the IRS' improper targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status, House Republicans have voted to hold her in contempt of Congress, and
- *HOUSE VOTES TO ASK FOR SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO INVESTIGATE IRS
As NBC reports, In a partisan 231-187 vote, the House passed the contempt resolution, sending the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. However, as The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) repidly noted, "Unfortunately, we don't expect the Attorney General to move forward with this case, he has put politics above the enforcement of the law on numerous occasions and unfortunately that is likely to occur again."
NBC Reports that House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the agency’s improper targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
In a partisan 231-187 vote, the House passed the contempt resolution, sending the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
It is unclear how the Justice Department will proceed. It did not move forward on the last contempt of Congress resolution passed in the House, which was issued for Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012.
Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment at two hearings of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about IRS targeting of conservative groups. Her refusal to testify in March led to a tense exchange between Committee Chair Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., after Issa gaveled the meeting closed without allowing Democrats to participate.
Republicans argue Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment right by proclaiming her innocence before refusing to testify, while Democrats have called the contempt charge a partisan vote meant to keep the story alive in an election year.
"Today’s vote has nothing to do with the facts or the law," Lerner's attorney, William Taylor III said in a statement. "Its only purpose is to keep the baseless IRS 'conspiracy' alive through the mid-term elections."
And, as The ACLJ notes:
"By holding Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress, the U.S. House sends an important message – that no one is above the law," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. "She ignored a Congressional subpoena and refused to testify – refused to tell the truth about the unlawful and illegal targeting scheme as well as her involvement and the involvement of others in this scandal. What happened at the IRS is a real tragedy. Blatant targeting of Americans because of their political views. Sidestepping the constitution. And, violating the trust of the American people. The decision to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress is an important step forward on the road to accountability – an important marker along the way to uncovering the truth."
It's now up to Attorney General Holder to determine whether to permit a federal court to move forward with the contempt finding.
"Unfortunately, we don't expect the Attorney General to move forward with this case," said Sekulow. "Sadly, he has put politics above the enforcement of the law on numerous occasions and unfortunately that is likely to occur again."
If tried and found guilty, Lerner could serve up to a year in prison or up to a $100,000 fine, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
The contempt charge also allows the House to arrest Lerner and put her in a Capitol jail cell until she complies with the subpoena or until the end of the 113th Congress — a congressional power not exercised since the early 20th century.
...
The contempt citation hardly ends the IRS scandal, with nearly half-dozen congressional investigations expected to wrap up in the coming months.
But it may be the last time Republicans have a shot at hearing from Lerner; criminal contempt if upheld in court will not require Lerner to testify.
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If Holder doesn't prosecute they should hold him in contempt... oh yeah.
If both parties are the same, why does the Socialist Semite Bankster Controlled Mainstream Media only go apeshit when Republicans break the law????
They have wiped the ObowelMovement's ass every time he has shit himself....yet Bush was at fault because 'it happened on his watch'.....
Holder is such a dick.
Finally the apolitical DOJ's special investigator will get to the bottom of this!
big /s
"By holding Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress, the U.S. House sends an important message – that no one is above the law," said Jay Sekulow
Ladies and gentlemen, the clown show is in full session! Now do your part and whine about the IRS, Eric "evilest of evils ever" Holder, Obungler, libtards, boner etc. Comrades, it is only together we can win this battle of good versus direst evil!!
Ok, I'll sharpen my knives tonight. I hope they are long enough to be classified as "Long Knives".
From Richard Nixon's Articles of Impeachment.
Article 2, Section 1
He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavoured to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be intitiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.
So history does repeat!!!
Except that Nixon was never impeached.
Details... Had he not been allowed to resign, do you really think he would not have been impeached?
Nixon's pardon was a giant leap down a slippery slope. No one in the federal government or the 1% has been held accountable since. Except for a few inside traders whose crimes were too obvious to ignore.
Don't worry. Holder will get around to this as soon as he's done investigating himself.
And, for the record, Nixon would have been impeached but not removed from office. No President has ever been removed from office through impeachment.
Sorry, no employee of the government should be able to assert their fifth amendment rights.
That should be a condition of their employment.
pods
If the Military lose their 1st amendment rights(they do), politicians and beauraucrats(sp?) should lose their 5th and 4th.
Nixon's pardon I could live with.
Clinton's non-conviction was much worse, but then the prosecution was incompetent.
I'm waiting for the asteroid impact, that should do it.
ha ha, I just started reading Lucifer's Hammer today.
It takes a prick to appoint a dick.
Holder is the evil one who should be prosecuted. Lerner is small potatoes.
Won't happen. Lerner is just looking up at the undercarriage of the proverbial bus. Expendibility + Plausible deniability.
Until they whisk her off to Gitmo for a bit of waterboarding, where she will surely give up the white house connection...
OpSec. why risk that. She will get a free Condo somewhere.
Lerner is also such a dick
He's a dick holder ...
This variety comes in many colors.
An asshole can be a dick holder.
A pussy can be a dick holder.
A right hand man can be a dick holder.
But a very, very dangerous dick.
I belive it's called situational ethics. If you don't like it you must be Rayciss.......
That's why they needed Fox News.
Why is it that the only time republicans do anything is when it makes the democrats look bad or has to do with election financing?
Benghazi!!! Benghazi! Benghazii!! Unfortunately for Darrell Issa, most Americans can't find Benghazi on a map and can't remember why Fox News is so excited about it. Is that where that Malaysian jet liner went down?
If some Reps started bringing up the "rat line" I might pay attention.
If they keep up their BS about letting americans die while O played golf or Hillary went down on I dont care then fuck them.
Benghazi was absolutely a CIA effort to move weapons around and fuck around in yet another country while promoting whatever bullshit they serve on the 4th of July. Bringing that to light would make some cockaroaches scatter.
To play this "we didn't do enough to save them" bullshit is theater. Like the government won't let a couple people (2000+) die to further their goals? Wake up. Everyone is expendable.
pods
+3 WTCs for you!
All you need is a vet who is pissed and who has nothing to lose, and justice will be served. I frankly think that is sooner than most think, as vets have been getting kicked in the balls by the VA and shit upon by everyone since Kissinger in the 1970s...
Exactly why Obozo has appointed only ass-kissers, boot-licks, and perfumed generals to high military positions. It's called insurance.
Ha ha, hold him in contempt again?
Wouldn't it be a shorter list to vote on all those that are NOT in contempt of Congress?
I'd like nothing more than to see this bitch's head on a pike. We can start there.
+1 Head on a pike for simply being an IRS lackey. But, I also have to admit, I too have contempt for CONgress.
I might have had some sympathy if she was in fact just a lacky, but her pious attitude in front of Congress and some of sordid details of the whole affair causes me to vote thumbs down, head on a pike...
Buckwheats, I say.
.45 ACP straight up the nickel slot and let the bitch squirm.
Put it on CSPAN
Edit: and bill her family for the bullet. Current market rate, plus tax.
Waste of a good pike.
what a circus
Any chance she gets Susan Rice for a cellmate ?
She's as likely to do jail time as Blythe.
And Nuland...and the other "hot looking" regime females...that SEC chair and Yellen
Rice started 3 wars in Africa (well, ok, 2 and a half), and not even a slap on the wrist. Why would we think she has anything other than zero % chance of getting punished for some Sunday morning spin?
That would be the 'honorable'....lawn jockey.....Ronald C. Machen Jr. was nominated to serve as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia by President Barack Obama on December 24, 2009.
I doubt the fucker can even read. But it sure as hell ain't going anywhere beyond his tree house.
The hearings were only intended to showcase the conservative position. They know full well that the IRS is an equal-opportunity wealth-sucker. They weren't interested in reform of the agency, just that it stop including them in its investigations.
The proper hearings would have been on the incredible power this agency HAS over people...and where in the Constitution they got THAT...
Think about it...it was about collecting revenue. And most people can understand the need to pay taxes. But this agency has SO much power it strikes fear into people...is THAT what our original intent was when we gave them this power over us? In a healthy society the IRS would be seen as a minor nuisance at best, no more able to seize our bank accounts than Amazon.com can if we don't pay for the books we bought. And most of us DO pay our Amazon bills, don't we? So, no one would suggest we give Amazon that power, would they?
A taxpayer under audit should NOT be presumed to be guilty and have to prove they are not. And they DEFINITELY not feel as though they are facing some monolithic agency that cannot be resisted. If they think they have a case against a taxpayer, they can follow the same legal remedies available to us all.
But, I guess it was more important to use this opportunity to determine whether certain groups were targeted...instead of questioning whether ANY groups should be targeted, or questioning THIS agency's right to target them in the first place.
The IRS and the government in general have kicked the ass of non-conservative groups for years. Environmental groups, Occupy, labor, etc... Conservatives said nothing and even laughed and likely backed the police and government thugs that beat on those non-conservatives.
Then along comes an IRS nothing major BS situation that involved no physical harm and likely was looking into the Koch brother's money laundering to Tea Party lackeys and we've got conservatives whining like school girls. The only reason the House is doing this is to appease the endlessly bitching and moaning far right end of their spectrum.
Always remember, when a conservative talks about freedom, they mean their freedom to do whatever THEY want, and only them. They don't give a shit about anyone else's freedom.
Your namesake would disagree with very word you wrote.
Any public official who pleads the fifth should, at the very least, be immediately removed from office and forfeit any and all pensions, insurance, and other perks (present and future) associated with that position and be barred from future public service positions.......
Yep, and anyone who holds a position in the SEC or CFTC who refuses to prosecute because they want a seriously high paying job with whom they are protecting should have the same fate.
Hell, there's some guy at the EPA that has been watching porn on his office computer for 2 - 6 hours A DAY and has been doing it since 2010 and they won't fire him!!!! In fact, they gave him a performance bonus on top of his $120K per year salary... We live in fucking lala land...
At least he goes to the office. Another guy has been temporarily working from home for 20 years!
Unbelievable.....
Political Theatre, As long as you stay in the Red or Blue line (doesn;t matter which one), they could give a shit less.
Meanwhile, we have Russian aircraft shutting down air traffic on the west coast.
It was a U2.
Our aircraft shutdown air traffic on the west coast (which is slightly more embarrassing.)
Bono will do anything for attention.
Bullshit. Someone was up there jamming the air traffic control radar (probably with a DRFM jammer), and it was not a U2 or any other American aircraft. The US military certainly has some latitude in its operations in the United States, but jamming a civilian air traffic control radar is out of bounds.
Besides, if you believe that a single track can cause both the primary and backup air traffic control computers to crash, then I have some territory on Mars that I'd like to sell you. This isn't 1985; computers today can handle quite a computational load. The only rational explanation is deliberate jamming, most likely with a DRFM jammer.
Much like the Russian Migs jammed the radar on the Merkan Destroyer in the Black Sea... Now you see me, now you don't... The US went from thinking they had a naval and air superiority to have fuck all... And Vlad rubbed their noses in it...
"Now you see me, now you don't..."
It's more like "now you see me ... now you see thousands of me, guess which one I am." Such a thing could overload an air traffic control radar in seconds.
Here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_radio_frequency_memory
Here's a NATO pdf that goes into more detail (this one is for the engineering geeks like me): http://ftp.rta.nato.int/public//PubFullText/RTO/MP/RTO-MP-SET-080///MP-S...
Wow. And to think I bought that U2 plane shit...almost. Something didn't sit right with it though. I didn't even know they still flew those things.
In any case, thanks for the inside insight.
+1000 for the Brainy Squid!
"...politics above enforcement of the law..." has been in effect for quite some time now.
More Kabuki Theater from CONgress.
I sense a presidential pardon in her future.
And a big fat bonus.......
She's sipping Mai Tai's on the porch of her retirement home in Florida with not a care in the world.
Seriously. Lerner being gifted early retirement with full pension is demonstrative of just how important accountability is to this administration thus far.
Meanwhile the beast-woman Sarah Hall Ingram, who held Lerner's position previously and was running the show when the IRS targeting began, not only escaped any real investigation but was promoted to direct the IRS's Obamacare division. You can't make this shit up.
Tricky Dicky did not even resort to using the IRS to target adversaries.....what does this tell us about Obama?
He also did not get the gun control he wanted, so now it is very hard to buy ammo because he has all these different government departments buying it hand over fist with our tax money. DHS is buying enough to fight about 5 Iraq sized wars....and we learn that the BLM apparently has its own army, along with the postal service, and the EPA.
Just as Hitler believed, if you are in the right, the laws do not apply to you. Our country is being governed by "special people" who are elite because they deserve to be (in their own minds) and they posses special knowledge of what is best for everyone else.
Anybody following the latest stuff on the Sandy Hook hoax? The guy Wolfgang and his lawyer went to the offices of United Way in CT. They had collected $29m for the "victims" and Wolfgang wanted to see the disclosure of where that money went, which is required by them to with their non profit status. 8 police cars met them at the building and told them to bugger off. That whole town made a fortune off the hoax and are now scrambling to keep the narrative together.
That situation continues to stink to high heaven.
Sandy Hook was a blatant staged event. If you have the ability to apply critical thinking and common sense in it's most basic form, it's not hard to see. Those who are unable to see(and those who are being paid not to) are labeling it a "conspiracy theory", when in reality it's an ongoing state crime against democracy.
That, and a few others, sure keep a cadre of 'crisis actors' gainfully employed...
So, Holder is in contempt for obstructing an investigation & abuse of his position as head law enforcement officer of this here banana republic for running guns to another banana republic and Lerner is in contempt for abusing her position as a bureaucrat in the IRS & deferential tax treatment to certain groups of people within this here banana republic.
The rule of law is now officially dead, arm yourselves and good luck.
////////////
Furthermore, lets out the snakes, so there are no misunderstandings...
http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014-04-09-OGR-Chairmen-to-EEC-True-the-Vote.pdf
You're mistaken that the rule of law is dead. It still applies to you.
My prediKTion: Will be pardoned by Obummer than be anointed ambassador to Israel by Hitlery.
Lois still collects a retirement check every month.
Great healthcare coverage for the family.
Free publicity for the Communist.
The Communists at the IRS will sing songs for poor Lois!
Greta van sustrend reported tonight on a hearing about an EPA employee who watched between 2-6 hours of porn everyday on duty hours. Upto 600different sites within a week.
Congress persons on the commitee said "fire him" repeatedly. Directly. management said they had no intention of doing anything about it what so ever. The guy is making $120,000 per year.
If they can't touch some low level patronage appointment (probably the kid of $30,000/yr political party donor) do you really think congress will even be allowed to so much as look at learner without lowering their eyes?
Classify under circus.
Isn't Holder in contempt already?
I think the record shows that Holder has always been in contempt....of the American people and the rule of law.
Phoney theater by Boehner and the Republicans. Congress has the power to hold and jail Lerner bypassing Eric Holder and the Justice Department and the courts. They chickened out.
In Jurney v. MacCracken, McCracken was held in prison by the Senate's Sergeant of Arms, Jurney. McCracken filed a Habeus Corpus petition with the federal court to compel his release. The court rejected his petition, affirming the Senate's power to punish for contempt. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/294/125/case.html
Boehner has no balls.
...but he did spank his Tea Party [bowel] movement challenger like a bunch of other GOP hacks this did recently.
"Beneath this mask, there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask, there is an idea, Mr Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof."
McGrain v. Daugherty.
All it takes is for Boehner to keep his mask on to know what he really is ;-)
Q: How many Republicans does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Nobody knows. No one has seen one since Reagan died.
"to keep the baseless IRS 'conspiracy' alive"
The "baseless conspiracy" that came to light when the Lois Lerner admitted they were targeting the Tea Party at an American Bar Association conference by planting the question.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/irs-planted-question-about-...
"At this time what difference does it make" ... always the operative line for the POLs
Lois L. just following orders ... isn't she the girlfriend of Superman ... how could she be doing wrong stuff?
Lois Lerner's response:
"Nana nana boo boo, stick your head in doo doo, you can't catch me!"
The heavy Democrat vote is disgraceful, demonstrating the problem with Congress, that one of its lowest priorities is the nation and its people – and justice.
They have no priority for the People. At All.
Hey guys - if you really want to do something right how about voting to send "Fuck The EU" Nuland to the Hague for trial as a war criminal?
Only if punishment under "Article 303" applies.
grow some balls, jail holder and lerner. and then cut off all justice department appropriations until they faithfully execute the laws passed by congress. leaving open the question of all other executive departments that are also not faithfully executing the laws passed by congress. up to and including barry davis department.
that would show the sumbitch who holds the whip.
Queue up the Brady Bunch style canned laughter... this will go nowhere.
Nothing is going to get anyone's attention except public hangings.
Why dont the Republicans remove Holder too at the same time?
Holder of course has no shame left. He should have resigned with this statement by the Republicans that they could not trust him for justice.
Man of course has no shame, no morals and no ethics. He stinks to high heavens and represents American Justice.
Wasn't (isn't) this the fucking bitch who was (is) going to be in charge of the jackbooted enforcement of the obamacare tax?
And isn't the point of a special prosecutor to get around a corrupt political whore AG?
Well there you have it. An arrogant Attorney General who is another lackey for Obama will not prosecute. So the House should excercise its power to arrest her until she testifies. That's what we call checks and balances.Then they should move again against the Attorney General. But my guess is negrophelia will intervene.
First, the Houe needs to Impeach and Convict the Evil Nigger Holder.
That;s right: Nigger. There is no other name for this anti american POS.
Talk to me when those criminal congressmen start indicting their own for front running stock purchases and buying stocks on insider info.
I hate them all with every fiber of my being.
“Protecting the integrity of tax-exempt organizations is an important part of our enforcement program,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “Lois’s background, including her work for the Federal Election Commission, qualifies her for this new assignment.”
Lets put this to a vote. I hereby submit to the investigative committe that we waterboard this bitch and then follow up with the same form of violent anal probing the IRS uses on the citizens of this country to get to the so called truth in tax matters. We accuse, and the burden of proof is on this cunt to prove otherwise. Mere procedural due process is a bitch, aint it?
Up and down votes please!!
"If tried and found guilty, Lerner could serve up to a year in prison or up to a $100,000 fine, according to a Congressional Research Service report." So a 1 year 20% pay cut on her reduced pension salary....
One would hope it is for EACH VIOLATION and she gets multiples.
Lois Lerner is safe for the next two years, but after that she will be thrown under the bus by Holder and Obama. She better turn state evidence and try to get a deal before it is to late.