IRS Official Who Took 5th Placed on Administrative Leave
Lois Lerner, the IRS official who invoked the Fifth Amendment when testifying before the House Oversight Committee, has been placed on administrative leave, with pay. Lerner was head of the Exempt Organizations division of the IRS, the division at the center of the IRS scandal over political discrimination of groups applying for 501(c)(4) status.
First she refused to testify. Now Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the tax agency scandal, is refusing to resign, according to a top Republican senator.
Sources confirmed to Fox News earlier Thursday that Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversaw the unit targeting conservative groups, had been placed on administrative leave, with pay.
According to one senator, Lerner was placed on leave after refusing to resign. She was reportedly asked to resign by the new acting IRS commissioner.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, claimed she was only put in that status after refusing to step down…
“My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation, and she refused to resign. She was then put on administrative leave instead,” Grassley said in a statement. “The IRS owes it to taxpayers to resolve her situation quickly. The agency needs to move on to fix the conditions that led to the targeting debacle.”
This comes after House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa claimed Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights when she gave an opening statement asserting her innocence.
Lerner’s future with the IRS is hard to predict. Even if she is exonerated of any wrongdoing, the bad blood between her and Congress may make her position untenable.
IRS Official Who Took 5th Placed On Administrative Leave
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Lois Lerner, the IRS official who invoked the Fifth Amendment when testifying before the House Oversight Committee, has been placed on administrative leave, with pay. Lerner was head of the Exempt Organizations division of the IRS, the division at the center of the IRS scandal over political discrimination of groups applying for 501(c)(4) status.
First she refused to testify. Now Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the tax agency scandal, is refusing to resign, according to a top Republican senator.
Sources confirmed to Fox News earlier Thursday that Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversaw the unit targeting conservative groups, had been placed on administrative leave, with pay.
According to one senator, Lerner was placed on leave after refusing to resign. She was reportedly asked to resign by the new acting IRS commissioner.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, claimed she was only put in that status after refusing to step down…
“My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation, and she refused to resign. She was then put on administrative leave instead,” Grassley said in a statement. “The IRS owes it to taxpayers to resolve her situation quickly. The agency needs to move on to fix the conditions that led to the targeting debacle.”
This comes after House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa claimed Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights when she gave an opening statement asserting her innocence.
Lerner’s future with the IRS is hard to predict. Even if she is exonerated of any wrongdoing, the bad blood between her and Congress may make her position untenable.
