House Oversight Committee Resolution for Lois Lerner Contempt of Congress Passes

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has passed a resolution (in a 21-12) vote to
hold former Internal Revenue Service Tax Exempt Director, Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify at two of the Committee's hearings.

The resolution posted by the Committee in advance of today's hearing states:

• "...Resolved, That because Lois G. Lerner, former Director, Exempt Organizations, Internal Revenue Service, offered a voluntary statement in testimony before the Committee, was found by the Committee to have waived her Fifth Amenment Privilege, was informed of the Committee's decision of waiver, and continued to refuse to testify before the Commitee, Ms. Lerner shall be found to be in contempt of Congress for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena.
• "...Resolved, That pursuant to 2 U.S.C. [//] 192 and 194, the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall certify the report of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, detailing the refusal of Ms. Lerner to testify before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as directed by subpoena, to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, to the end tht Ms. Lerner be proceeded against in the manner and form provided by law.
• "...Resolved, That the Speaker of the House shall otherwise take all appropriate action to enforce the subpoena..."

Lerner has been pressed by congressional investigators to testify in the matter of IRS subjecting Tea Party and Conservative groups and individuals to additional scrutiny as a result of those groups applying for tax exempt status.  The groups and Congressional Republicans assert that this amounted to political intimidation and repression by the IRS and therefore the Democrat Party and the Obama Administration.

Events that have unfolded since this became an issue, include the Attorney General appointing an Obama campaign contributor to head the Investigation, which Conservatives and Republicans charge is a conflict of interest, while the Attorney General maintains that no conflict of interest exists.

Additionally and most recently on the eve of the vote on the Resolution of Contempt of Congress, Republican Committee members have charged collusion between the lead Minority Committee member, Elijah Cummings and the IRS to target for additional scrutiny another group, "True the Vote," and a withholding of information about that targeting, amounting to a cover-up, and an attempt to thwart, slow, or otherwise impede the Oversight Committee's investigation.

The document includes, in addition to a summary of the resolution, and its statement of authority and purpose, a back ground on the Committee's Investigation, documents showing Lois Lerner's refusal to comply with the Committee's subpoena for testimony, and the document's conclusion which states in part:

"...On May 22, 2013, Ms. Lerner gave an opening statement and then refused to answer any of the Committee’s questions and asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege. On June 28, 2013, the Committee voted that Ms. Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment privilege. Chairman Issa subsequently recalled her to answer the Committee’s questions. When the May 22, 2013 hearing reconvened nine months later, on March 5, 2014, she again refused to answer any of the Committee’s questions and invoked the Fifth Amendment...In short, Ms. Lerner has refused to provide testimony in response to the Committee's duly issued subpoena..."

You can see the pdf file of the Resolution HERE

Top Democrat Oversight Committee Member Helped IRS Target Conservatives?

Congressman Elijah Cummings. Investigates The IRS, While Helping the IRS to Suppress the Tea Party and Conservatives?

The Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is alleging collusion between The Top Democrat member of that Committee and his staff, and the IRS in the targeting of Conservatives for additional scrutiny.

The Oversight Committee is one of the congressional bodies that is investigating the IRS's political persecution against the Tea Party organizations and Conservatives. The allegations of collusion between the IRS and Democrat Oversight Committee members and their staff raise questions about Democrats in that committee acting to slow, thwart, sabotage, or otherwise impede the investigation into the IRS abuses.

A media dispatch from Chairman of the Oversight Committee Darrel Issa referenced a letter signed by five subcommittee chairmen, in which Issa details allegations that Congressman Elijah Cummings worked with the IRS to request information about the targeted group, "True The Vote."  In the letter, Chairman Issa gets immediately to the point:

"...The Committee has engaged in a comprehensive and thorough examination of the IRS targeting of tax-exempt applicants.  From the very outset, you have worked to obstuct the investigation, even declaring on national television after only a few weeks of fact-finding that the "case is solved."  New IRS documents identified by the Commitee raise disturbing concerns about your possible motivations for opposing this investigation and unwillingness to lend your support to efforts to obtain the testimony of former IRS exempt Organizations Director Lois G. Lerner..."

The Congressmen explain their inquiry with details that have come to light during the investigation of the IRS by the Oversight Committee:

• The IRS and the Oversight Minority made numerous requests for virtually identical information from True the Vote, raising concerns that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with Rep. Cummings’ staff.
• Five days after Cummings contacted True the Vote seeking “copies of all training materials used for volunteers, affiliates, or other entities,” the IRS sent True the Vote a letter requesting True the Vote provide “a copy of [True the Vote’s] volunteer registration form,” “…the process you use to assign volunteers,” “how you keep your volunteers in teams,” and “how your volunteers are deployed … following the training they receive by you.”
• On or before January 25, 2013, Cummings’ staff requested more information from the IRS about True the Vote.  The head of the IRS Legislative Affairs office e-mailed several IRS officials, including former Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner, that “House Oversight Committee Minority staff” sought information about True the Vote.  On Monday, January 28, Lerner wrote to her deputy Holly Paz: “Did we find anything?”  When Paz informed her minutes later that she had not heard back about True the Vote’s information, Lerner replied: “thanks – check tomorrow please.
• On January 31, 2013, Paz attached True the Vote’s form 990s, which she authorized the IRS to share with the Minority staff.  Neither Cummings nor the IRS shared these requested documents with the Oversight Majority.  None of the Minority’s communications about True the Vote with the IRS were shared with the Committee Majority even though Ranking Member Cummings frequently complains about the Committee Majority contacting individuals on official matters without the involvement of Minority staff.
• Cummings denied that his staff, “might have been involved in putting True the Vote on the radar screen of some of these Federal agencies” at a February 6, 2014, Subcommittee hearing: 
• Ms. Mitchell:                      We want to get to the bottom of how these coincidences happened, and we’re going to try to figure out whether any – if there was any staff of this committee that might have been involved in putting True the Vote on the radar screen of some of these Federal agencies.  We don’t know that, but we – we’re going to do everything we can do to try to get to the bottom of how did this all happen.  
• Mr. Cummings.                 Will the gentleman yield?
• Mr. Meadows.                                  Yes.
• Mr. Cummings.                 I want to thank the gentleman for his courtesy.  What she just said is absolutely incorrect and not true.

Issa tells Cumings that:

"...Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, records of communication between your staff and IRS officials--which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff--indicate otherwise.  As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff's undisclosed contacts with the IRS..."

Does Issa then imply that there's a possible attempt to cover up Cummings' "collusion" with the IRS?  He tells Cummings in the letter:

"...the involvement of IRS officials at the center of the targeting scandal responding to your requests, raise serious questions about your actions and motivations for trying to bring this investigation to a premature end.  If the Committee, as you publicly suggested in June 2013, 'wrap[ped] this case up and moved on ' at that time, the Committee may have never seen documents raising questions about your possible coordination with the IRS in communications that excluded the Committee Majority.  Your frequent complaints about the Committee Majority contacting individuals on official matters without the involvement of Minority staff make reasons for your staff's secretive correspondence with the IRS even more mysterious..."

Today the Oversight Committee is convening to consider a "...Resolution Recommending that the House of Representatives Find Lois G. Lerner, Former Director, Exempt Organizations, Internal Revenue Service, In Contempt of Congress for Refusal to Comply With a Subpoena Duly Issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform..."

Lois Lerner, the IRS and The "Inherent Contempt" Power of Congress

Logo of Internal Revenue Service, USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"Inherent Contempt" is a doctrine that gives Congress the power to bring "recalcitrant" witnesses in to testify, by force, if necessary.

In the case of the former IRS Director of the (tax) exempt department of the Internal Revenue Service, Lois Lerner, who has repeatedly refused to testify before Congress about her role in the political targeting of Conservatives, Republicans continue to appeal to the Justice Department to investigate possible infractions by Executive Branch employees in the Obama administration.

However, the Justice Department has not been forthcoming, and has instead, much to the chagrin of conservatives in Congress, appointed what some allege, is a partisan Justice employee as the lead investigator.

Conservatives have asserted the inappropriate appointment of Barbara Bosserman, to head the Investigation, because, they allege, she has been a financial contributor to the Obama re-election campaign, and has, therefore, a conflict of interest.

Additionally, conservatives claim that the Attorney General, Eric Holder, and the Department of Justice have been dragging their feet with respect to addressing the concerns of those targeted for unwarranted additonal scrutiny by the IRS.

Just today, the Ways and Means Committee has referred the case of Lois Lerner to the Justice Department with a list of alleged infractions, and the House is now faced with an impasse if the DOJ decides not to direct a Grand Jury to investigate the allegations.

But Congress is not without recourse, and this is where "Inherent Contempt" comes in.  According to this doctrine, Congress can compel someone to testify by "force" if necessary.  This is considered to mean that if a person refuses to testify before Congress or one of its committees, they can be arrested and jailed. Precedent exists in the following forms:

• "...In 1795, shortly after the Constitution was ratified, the House ordered its sergeant at arms to arrest and detain two men accused of trying to bribe members of Congress. The House held a trial and convicted one of them..."
• "...In 1821, the Supreme Court upheld Congress’s right to hold people in contempt and imprison them. Without this power, the court ruled, Congress would 'be exposed to every indignity and interruption, that rudeness, caprice, or even conspiracy, may mediate against it.'..."
• "...Later, in a 1927 case arising from the Teapot Dome scandal, the court upheld the Senate’s arrest of the brother of a former attorney general — carried out in Ohio by the deputy sergeant at arms — for ignoring a subpoena to testify..." (NYT 4 Dec 07)

Congress prepared itself to use "...inherent contempt in 2007 when it was ready to hold Joshua Bolten, Bush Administration Chief of Staff, and Harriet Miers, former White House Counsel, in contempt for  failing to comply with subpoenas in the United States Attorneys Scandal..."

[Background Information]:  In that case (from an article by Adam Cohen in the New York Times; December 4, 2007) "...Cases appear to have been brought against Democrats and blocked against Republicans to help Republicans win elections. The stakes have grown steadily: it now seems that innocent people, like Georgia Thompson, a Wisconsin civil servant, may have been jailed for political reasons. Congress has a duty to find out what happened..." See article HERE 

In that same article, Cohen reports that "... The Congressional Research Service issued a report in July [of that year] that confirmed Congress’s inherent contempt powers. It explained how they work: 'The individual is brought before the House or Senate by the sergeant at arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be imprisoned in the Capitol jail.' Congress can do this, the report concluded, to compel them to testify or to punish them for their refusal to do so..."

He continues with:  "...Congress’s inherent contempt powers are not limitless. If it arrested noncooperating witnesses in the United States attorneys scandal — and there are more than just Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers — then they would have the right to challenge their confinement in federal court. Ironically, they would rely on the habeas corpus right that the Bush administration has been whittling away..."

Back then, the shoe was on the other foot of the other political party, and Cohen expressed the following:

"...This country has seen far too much of this sort of dismissal of Congress’s authority. There is a simple way to avoid a constitutional showdown: If Congress holds witnesses in contempt, the Justice Department should enforce the subpoenas. Mr. Mukasey [then Attorney General] would need to focus not on the White House’s interests, but rather on his duty to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed..."

Today, it could be said, the same should be declared for Attorney General Eric Holder to "avoid a constitutional showdown."

And, today, House Ways and Means Committee member, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, told the Washington Examiner, in reference to the possibility of Congress utilizing "Inherent Contempt" to compel testimony from Lois Lerner, "...I think we'll deal with that, should that occur, but I think this too is an ongoing investigation, and, frankly, for the attorney general to turn a blind eye to this evidence would discredit him greatly...this is a very thorough, deliberate investigation...This congressional referral is commonplace when we find evidence of wrongdoing from the legislative branch...The Department of Justice prematurely claimed and announced that it would not be pursuing wrongdoing charges, which tells me that they are at this point not taking the investigation seriously,"

The Examiner's Joel Gehrke pointed out, that when Brady was pressed to rule out the idea of the House using the "inherent contempt" doctrine against Lerner, Brady "chose not to do so."

According to the House Oversight Committee Calendar, scheduled at tomorrow's (Thursday April, 10) full business meeting, will be the consideration of a "...Resolution Recommending that the House of Representatives Find Lois G. Lerner, Former Director, Exempt Organizations, Internal Revenue Service, In Contempt of Congress for Refusal to Comply With a Subpoena Duly Issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform..."

IRS OPENLY CAMPAIGNS FOR OBAMA...

While the IRS has been busily persecuting Conservatives and the Tea Party for their political beliefs, offices of the IRS have also been openly campaigning for Obama and the Democrat Party.

To Wit:

• "...it was 'commonplace' in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office..."
• "...In another case, a worker at the tax agency’s customer help line urged taxpayers “to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name...”
• "...Another IRS employee in Kentucky has agreed to serve a 14-day suspension for blasting Republicans in a conversation with a taxpayer. 'They’re going to take women back 40 years,' the IRS employee said in a conversation that was recorded. The employee also said that 'if you vote for a Republican, the rich are going to get richer and the poor are going to get poorer'...”

This from a report by Stephen Dinan @ The Washington Times, which you can read HERE in its entirety.