Lois Lerner, the disgraced ex-IRS official whose evident disdain for conservatives is now a matter of public record, will not be hit with criminal contempt charges for allegedly stonewalling Congress, despite House Republicans’ best efforts. Politico reports:
The Justice Department will not seek criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, the central figure in a scandal that erupted over whether the tax agency improperly targeted conservative political groups.Ronald Machen, the 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 case to a grand jury over Lerner’s refusal to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March 2014. The House approved a criminal contempt resolution against Lerner in May 2014, and Machen’s office has been reviewing the issue since then.
Lerner and other IRS officials, however, are still under investigation by the FBI for the tea party targeting matter — which is a separate probe entirely.
In other words, she’s not off the hook yet – although she's avoided a major legal headache for now.
I'll leave you with this: the clip of Lerner's appearance in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been the source of so much controversy:
