Bloomberg reported that the US House of Representatives has voted to hold Lois Lerner, a former Internal Revenue Service official, in contempt of the Congress yesterday. The House claimed that the ex-director of exempt organizations at the tax agency refused to answer questions about her role in probing Tea Party groups. Her case will reportedly be referred to the US Attorney in Washington for possible prosecution. Moreover, the House has moved for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a probe on the IRS.
The news agency said that the House votes followed nearly a year Lerner had disclosed the tax agency's actions against Tea Party groups. At the moment, a minimum of five investigations are ongoing, and critics has slammed the IRS' attempt to amend the rules that govern the political activity of nonprofit groups. The measures will reportedly not take effect until after the elections this year.
Republicans had continued to pressed forward with the controversy and had been making the IRS a symbol of the US government's overreach, Bloomberg said. They claimed that a contempt finding for Lerner and a special counsel for the IRS probe were necessary measures to get to the bottom of the issue.
Nebraska Republican Representative Lee Terry said on the House floor yesterday, "Let there be no mistake. We wouldn't be here today if Ms. Lerner hadn't conducted her own partisan witch hunt."
In May of last year, Lerner told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that she has done nothing wrong with the tax agency's focus on the limited-government Tea Party groups. She then began to invoke her right against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions from the House committee.
William Taylor, Lerner's attorney, said yesterday in an emailed statement that his client has not waived her right to refuse to testify as the Republicans claimed and that the vote has nothing to do with the law. He added, "Its only purpose is to keep the baseless IRS ‘conspiracy' alive through the mid-term elections."
