IRS Official Lois Lerner Put On Administrative Leave
Lois Lerner, the federal government official seemingly at the center of the IRS scandal, has been placed on administrative leave.
Lerner — who told the news media when the scandal broke that she wasn’t good at math despite working for Internal Revenue Service — was in charge of the office that improperly subjected tax-exempt status applications from Tea Party and other politically conservative groups to heavy scrutiny and intrusive questioning. On May 10, in response to a planted question at a tax conference, she publicly apologized for profiling Tea Party groups. An Inspector General audit (which was not an investigation per se) has concluded that the targeting was inappropriate and the result of ineffective management.
Yesterday, while insisting she did nothing wrong, Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refused to testify before the House Oversight Committee which is investigating the wrongful Tea Party targeting.
Based on the legal theory that her opening statement waived the constitutional protections, Chairman Darrell Issa plans to recall Lerner before the committee. In addition to Capitol Hill investigations, the FBI has launched a criminal probe of IRS misconduct in relation to how the Tea Party applications were handled or mishandled in the run-up to the 2012 presidential elections.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for Lerner’s termination for withholding information from Congress, but given civil service and union protections, it is very difficult to fire a federal government employee under most circumstances. Administrative leave is roughly equivalent to a paid suspension.
Lerner reportedly sent this email to her staff: “Due to the events of recent days, I am on administrative leave starting today. An announcement will be made shortly informing you who will be acting while I am on administrative leave. I know all of you will continue to support [Exempt Office’s] mission during these difficult times … I thank you for all your hard work and dedication,” adding, “The work you do is important.”
Lois Lerner is on administrative leave with pay, or as we used to call it back in the day, vacation.
— Andy Levy (@andylevy) May 23, 2013
Grassley says his “understanding” is new acting IRS commish asked for Lerner resignation +she refused. Put on administrative leave instead.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 23, 2013
The IRS has already found someone else to run the office at least on an interim basis: “Ken Corbin will be the acting director of the agency’s exempt organizations division. Corbin is currently deputy director of submission processing in the wage and investment division.”
