Lois Lerner, the disgraced former IRS official whose outspoken contempt for conservatives has become a public fact, will not be held in contempt of court for allegedly obstructing Congress, despite the best efforts of House Republicans. Political reports:
The Justice Department will not seek contempt of court charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, a central figure in the scandal that erupted over the Internal Revenue Service’s unfair targeting of conservative political groups.
Ronald Machen, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a seven-page letter this week that he would not bring a criminal grand jury case over Lerner’s refusal to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March 2014. The House approved a contempt of court resolution against Lerner in May 2014, and Machen’s office has been reviewing the case since then.
Lerner and other IRS officials, however, remain under investigation by the FBI for attacks on members of the Tea Party movement, a separate investigation.
In other words, she is not yet free from responsibility – although she has avoided sedate legal trouble for now.
I’ll leave you with this: a clip from Lerner’s testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which was the source so much controversy:
