Hey, GOP: Bring the Hammer Down — Jail Lois Lerner Now
by Judson Phillips
Tea Party Nation
Lois Lerner, the IRS official who is at the center of the scandal involving the IRS attacks on the Tea Party tried to be really slick yesterday.
Who knows who advised her to do what she did, but there is a certain joy we all have when liberals try to be smart and end up outsmarting themselves.
What did she do and how is it going to come back to bite her?
She tried to invoke her 5th Amendment rights but showing the kind of competence liberals often show, she screwed up.
Lerner asked to be excused from testifying, informing the House Oversight Committee she would be invoking her 5th Amendment rights and declining to answer questions.
Someone did not like the image that would convey. So someone came up with a bright idea. Lerner would defend herself in an opening statement, then refuse to answer any other questions.
Oops.
If a lawyer advised her to do that perhaps they should not have slept through school the day they taught law in law school.
Under the law, certain privileges exist but if you are not careful, they can be waived.
Lerner did just that.
In a trial, a witness is not allowed to make a statement to the jury, then refuse to answer questions.
By making this opening statement, Lerner waived her right to assert the 5th Amendment.
She blew it …
