IRS Director Lois Lerner To Plead Fifth

Lois Lerner, Director of the IRS Exempt Organizations division, will plead the Fifth rather than testify before the House oversight committee. John Nolte at Breitbart has the scoop. Excerpt:

Lerner has retained defense attorney William W. Taylor 3rd, who sent a letter to Darrell Issa, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee. In the letter Taylor said, "She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.”

Taylor is hoping Issa will excuse his client from having to testify in order to save her the embarrassment of having to invoke the Fifth in public. Per The L.A. Times, the committee hasn't yet answered her request one way or the other.

ADDED: National Journal reports that Issa "has issued a subpoena to Lerner anyway."

Since the IRS scandal broke wide open ten days ago, Lerner has been at the center of the controversy. She is not only the head of the division that oversaw the Kafka-esque harassment of President Obama's political foes; she has also been caught on numerous occasions making misleading statements.

Oh, love it: "Taylor is hoping Issa will excuse his client from having to testify in order to save her the embarrassment of having to invoke the Fifth in public." Well we are all happy to announce to the public that Lois Lerner is pleading the Fifth Amendment so she won't have to incriminate herself.

I wonder how we should interpret this silence from Director Lerner. Maybe we should ask Attorney General Eric Holder—he's the expert on the matter of silence interpretation.

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