Here is what he says about whether the IRS’ Lois Lerner waived her rights or not:

It is the opinion of attorney Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law Professor and litigator of such cases as Claus Von Bulow and O.J. Simpson that Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s embattled director of Exempt Organizations, could be held in contempt of court and jailed for refusing to testify before Congress.

Speaking on The Steve Malzberg Show, Dershowitz said, “She’s in trouble. She can be held in contempt. Congress can actually hold you in contempt and put you in the Congressional jail.”

The legal observation from the famous criminal defense attorney was all the more interesting following Lerner’s invocation of her Fifth Amendment right Wednesday appearing before a House subcommittee investigating the growing scandal.

After her refusal to testify, a mini debate broke out in Washington circles concerning the validity of convicting her for the action. Lerner’s take before the committee was her insistence that “I have done nothing wrong.”

In Dershowitz’s legal opinion, her brief statement of innocence has opened a “legal Pandora’s Box. You can’t simply make statements about a subject and then plead the Fifth in response to questions about the very same subject. Once you open the door to an area of inquiry, you have waived your Fifth Amendment right; you’ve waived your self-incrimination right on that subject matter.”

The renowned Harvard Professor added the legal opinion that making such a proclamation could be considered malpractice on the part of her attorney. However, she could later say she had overruled the advice she received.

Whatever the case, Lerner most certainly will be called back in front of Rep. Darrell Issa’s committee investigating her part in the IRS’s auditing of conservative groups seeking non-profit status.

As Dershowitz saw the situation, “It should never have been allowed. She should have been told by her attorney that the law is clear, that once you open up an area of inquiry for interrogation, you have to respond. Now she may have made a political decision that it’s worth it to take the risk. That’s just not the way the law works. It may be the way politics works . . . but she can’t invoke the Fifth.”

Many are  CLICK HERE

On Monday I happened to make a smart *** remark here on GretaWire about what would have happened if the DOJ had hacked my phones and emails over the past weekend instead of James Rosen and it included reference to Audrey’s personal problems.  But alas, while I have now violated her DOG HIPPA rights by revealing her health issues, at least she has become an internet sensation….from THE BLAZE to POLITOMIX!  

Next stop for Audrey? American Idol? Dancing with the Stars? 

SENATORS McCAIN AND LEVIN CALL FOR REMOVAL OF IRS OFFICIAL FROM OFFICE

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Carl Levin (D-MI), Ranking Member and Chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, today sent the following letter to Daniel Werfel, Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) urging him “to suspend immediately Lois Lerner from her office as Director of the Office of Exempt Organizations at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)”:

May 23, 2013

Mr. Daniel Werfel
Acting Commissioner
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20224

Dear Acting Commissioner Werfel:

We are writing to urge you to suspend immediately Lois Lerner from her office as Director of the Office of Exempt Organizations at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). We believe that Ms. Lerner failed to disclose crucial information concerning the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of some conservative 501(c)(4) organizations during the course of a Subcommittee investigation into how the IRS enforces the 501(c)(4) law, leading to an incomplete account of the full operations of her unit.

Since March of last year, the Subcommittee has been examining whether the IRS adequately and appropriately enforces tax code provisions and implementing regulations regarding the extent to which tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups may engage in political campaign activity. The Subcommittee asked the IRS why it was not enforcing the 501(c)(4) statute which states that social welfare organizations should be used “exclusively for the promotion of social welfare” and instead enforcing the more lenient IRS regulation which states that a social welfare organization may be used “primarily” for social welfare. It also asked the IRS about how they reviewed applications filed by certain Democratic and Republican leaning 501(c)(4)s. Our investigation has included a year’s worth of correspondence between the Subcommittee and the IRS, as well as document productions and repeated consultations with IRS staff.

On April 30, 2013, Ms. Lerner and seven IRS colleagues spent six-hours being interviewed, on a bipartisan basis, by Subcommittee staff. That interview covered, among other topics, how the IRS determines which groups to review, what actions are taken in connection with the IRS reviews, and how the laws and regulations are used to examine those groups. Ms. Lerner failed to disclose the internal controversy over the search terms used by the Cincinnati office to identify 501(c)(4) groups for further review, the actions taken by that office in reviewing the identified groups, the investigation and imminent findings by the Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA); and TIGTA’s conclusion that the IRS had used inappropriate criteria to target Tea Party and other conservative groups. Ms. Lerner also failed to disclose that she was fully aware of these issues as early as June 2011, and, according to TIGTA, had been personally involved in reviewing questionable actions taken by the Cincinnati office.

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 IRS. Ms. Lerner’s continued tenure in the office she holds, where she is responsible for overseeing 1.6 million tax-exempt organizations, would erode public trust and confidence in the IRS and its professional integrity. We believe that the immediate removal of Ms. Lerner from office would be a vital step in helping to restore public trust in the agency.

Sincerely,

John McCain
Carl Levin

###

Saving the Children

By David Westin

I spent yesterday touring the fifth largest city in Jordan. It’s named Zaatari, its population is over 120,000, most of the people who live there are children, and it was founded less than ten months ago. It’s a Syrian refugee camp.

What’s going on in the desert just south of the Syrian/Jordanian border would break your heart, if its overwhelming scope didn’t numb you first. The size of the need is too great to comprehend in full. And these 120,000 people are only a fraction of the Syrian refugees spread throughout northern Jordan — not to speak of those in Lebanon and Turkey and even in Iraq. More pour in every day.

Zaatari is a city with no sidewalks or trees or parks. It’s covered instead with dirt and gravel without a tree or bush in sight under a sun that has already grown hot in May. Row after row of tents are packed in more closely than they’re supposed to be because families and even villages want to be close. There is no running water and no regular electricity (other than what some people take through jury-rigged splices into the lines running to outdoor lights set high up on poles through much of the camp). Cooking is done (or supposed to be done) in centralized cooking areas using propane gas. Cinder block latrines are scattered through the camp. And the children are everywhere.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of Westin’s column on the Huffington Post

Urgent: Explanation on how/why Lerner could be recalled

Per Pergram-Capitol Hill

I spoke at length with House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) off-camera (would not come on camera) about the hearing and the question as to recalling Lois Lerner.

Issa points out that he RECESSED the hearing…he did not ADJOURN the hearing.

There is a BIG parliamentary difference. If you recess the hearing…the hearing is still ongoing. If you adjourn the hearing, it’s done. Issa would have to issue another subpoena for Lerner…and chances are, she might comport herself a lot differently than she did yesterday.

Go back to the GSA hearing with Jeff Neely, the GSA executive who threw the lavish party in Las Vegas.

Once Issa swore him in…Neely immediately repeated a rote mantra, invoking his 5th Amendment rights to every question Issa asked. He said nothing else and never deviated. Issa finally dismissed him.

In this case, Lerner was sworn-in…then read an opening statement where she declared she did nothing wrong….THEN leaned on the Fifth Amendment when Issa asked questions…hence the protest from Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC).

So….Issa tells me off-camer that “I had a script to allow her to take the Fifth”….meaning he was expecting a similar exchange to what he had in April, 2012 with Neely. She didn’t do that.

Issa:

I think that testimony was germane.

Issa:

You can’t puit the genie back in the bottle.

Issa:

Everything she said under oath is subject to perjury.

Hence, she is technically still under subpoena…but has not been recalled yet…but very well could. And Issa said as much yesterday.

Chad Pergram

Senior Producer for Capitol Hill

FOX News

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE in The Examiner  (by Charlie Spiering)

From Oversight Committee spokesman

 ’After consulting with counsel, Chairman Issa has concluded that Ms. Lerner’s 5th amendment assertion is no longer valid. She remains under subpoena, the Committee is looking at recalling her for testimony.’

 ——————-

Nick Kalman

Producer, Fox News Channel