This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/us/politics/irs-official-who-refused-to-testify-is-put-on-leave.html
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| I.R.S. Official Who Refused to Testify Is Suspended | I.R.S. Official Who Refused to Testify Is Suspended |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| WASHINGTON — Lois Lerner, the head of the Internal Revenue Service’s division on exempt organizations, was put on administrative leave Thursday, a day after she invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to testify before a House committee investigating her division’s targeting of conservative groups. | |
| The move came became public minutes after Senators Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona, released a letter to the new acting I.R.S. Commissioner, Daniel I. Werfel, demanding Ms. Lerner’s immediate suspension for what they said was her failure to disclose information to their Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. | |
| “Given the serious failure by Ms. Lerner to disclose to this subcommittee key information on topics that the subcommittee was investigating, we have lost confidence in her ability to fulfill her duties as director of exempt organizations at the I.R.S.,” wrote Mr. Levin and Mr. McCain. | “Given the serious failure by Ms. Lerner to disclose to this subcommittee key information on topics that the subcommittee was investigating, we have lost confidence in her ability to fulfill her duties as director of exempt organizations at the I.R.S.,” wrote Mr. Levin and Mr. McCain. |
| It was not immediately clear if Ms. Lerner’s suspension would lead to dismissal. If so, she would be the third senior I.R.S. official to lose their job in the targeting scandal. The service’s acting commissioner, Steven T. Miller, was fired this month, and Ms. Lerner’s supervisor, Joseph H. Grant, director of the I.R.S.'s tax exempt and government entities division, said he would retire on June 3. | |
| Ms. Lerner has been under severe pressure since May 10, when she delivered an awkward apology to Tea Party and other conservative groups whose applications for 501(c)(4) tax exemptions had been singled out for special scrutiny. At that time, she said she learned of the targeting in 2012, when Tea Party groups publicly accused the I.R.S. of mistreatment. | Ms. Lerner has been under severe pressure since May 10, when she delivered an awkward apology to Tea Party and other conservative groups whose applications for 501(c)(4) tax exemptions had been singled out for special scrutiny. At that time, she said she learned of the targeting in 2012, when Tea Party groups publicly accused the I.R.S. of mistreatment. |
| But a Treasury inspector general’s audit released days later appeared to make it clear that she knew of the effort well before then and had tried to reshape it. Lawmakers from both parties publicly accused her of lying to them. | But a Treasury inspector general’s audit released days later appeared to make it clear that she knew of the effort well before then and had tried to reshape it. Lawmakers from both parties publicly accused her of lying to them. |
| In her appearance before the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, Ms. Lerner on Wednesday invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination and declined to testify. But the committee’s chairman, Representative Darrell Issa of California, said that because she had given an opening statement before invoking the Fifth, she had effectively lost that right. He said he was considering calling her back before his committee. | |
| “Everything she said under oath is subject to perjury,” Mr. Issa said. “This is not one of those things where you can put the genie back in the bottle.” | “Everything she said under oath is subject to perjury,” Mr. Issa said. “This is not one of those things where you can put the genie back in the bottle.” |
| In her opening statement, Ms. Lerner told the committee that she had not lied to Congress and had done nothing wrong. | |
| In announcing her replacement, the I.R.S. on Thursday hailed Ken Corbin as “an ideal choice to help the exempt organization’s area through this difficult period.” | |
| Mr. Corbin is deputy director for submission processing at the agency’s wage and investment division. | Mr. Corbin is deputy director for submission processing at the agency’s wage and investment division. |