Lois Lerner, director of the tax exempt organizations division of the Internal Revenue Service, will use her Fifth Amendment right in testimony before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday, according to CBS News.
Lerner is scheduled to be questioned Wednesday about suspicious IRS practices that continued for about a year and a half, beginning in 2010. The IRS targeted politically conservative groups who were requesting tax-exempt status.
Lerner wrote a letter to committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, outlining her intentions according to CNN.com.
"The Committee has been contacted by Ms. Lerner's lawyer who stated that his client intended to invoke her 5th amendment right and refuse to answer questions," Ali Ahmad, the committee's spokesman. wrote in a statement. "Ms. Lerner remains under subpoena from Chairman Issa to appear at tomorrow's hearing - the Committee has a Constitutional obligation to conduct oversight. Chairman Issa remains hopeful that she will ultimately decide to testify tomorrow about her knowledge of outrageous IRS targeting of Americans for their political beliefs."
Lerner publically admitted she learned about the targeting in June 2011. Her admission came days before an independent inspector general’s report on the IRS targeting was released.
One of the groups that faced the IRS’ prejudice was the Tea Party. Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, released a statement Tuesday:
“While we respect Ms. Lerner’s use of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, we are disturbed she saw fit to trample over our First Amendment rights by harassing us and many other groups for our views.”
