Lois Lerner and the Fifth Amendment (Video)

When you refuse to testify by invoking your Fifth Amendment rights, doesn't that mean you don't make remarks related to the case?

At the IRS scandal hearings yesterday, Lois Lerner decided she could proclaim herself innocent of all wrongdoing and comment on a document, as well as declare herself to be a model government employee and servant of the people.

From the Washington Post:

Lois G. Lerner, who led the IRS tax-exempt unit at the center of the scandal, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during an appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, saying that members of the panel had already falsely accused her of providing false information to Congress.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations. And I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

On the advice of counsel, she said, she would not answer further questions.

Before dismissing her, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), asked Lerner to review a transcript of an interview she gave to the Treasury Department watchdog as part of an investigation into the matter. Lerner confirmed the contents of the document but declined to answer further questions.

Issa then dismissed Lerner and her attorney against the objections of Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who said that Lerner had waived her right to invoke the Fifth Amendment by making an opening statement.

“She ought to stand here and answer our questions,” he added later as people in the audience applauded.

When the hearing concluded six hours later, Issa announced that he might recall Lerner before the committee and review whether she waived her Fifth Amendment rights by giving an opening statement and answering questions about the document.

Accordingly, Issa said the hearing “stands in recess, not adjourned.”

...Lerner’s lawyer, William W. Taylor, adamantly disagreed with suggestions that his client had opened herself up to contempt charges.

“The law is clear that a witness does not waive her Fifth Amendment rights not to testify as to facts by asserting that she is innocent of the wrongdoing with which she is accused,” Taylor wrote in an e-mail

Stanley M. Brand, who has represented several clients who faced congressional scrutiny, agreed that Lerner did not provide “a waiver” for lawmakers to ask her questions.

“The question would be whether she made statements about the factual substance of the subject, but courts will be loath to divest someone of their rights absent a clear and unequivocal waiver,” Brand wrote in an e-mail.

Here's video of Lerner testifying on her behalf, or not:



Did Lerner waive her Fifth Amendment rights when she made her speech?

That's for lawyers and lawmakers to argue.

Kind of funny that there is discussion about protecting Lerner's rights during an investigation about the rights of conservatives being so flagrantly violated.

What's clear is that Lerner's decision not to answer questions about the IRS abuses isn't helping Obama get beyond this scandal.

Transparency?