A day after invoking her Fifth Amendment rights before a U.S. House committee, IRS official Lois Lerner refused a request from the new head of the tax agency to resign from her post, and was then placed on administrative leave, as the fallout spread from the IRS targeting of more conservative organizations.
"My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation, and she refused to resign," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA).
"From all accounts so far, the IRS acting commissioner was on solid ground to ask for her resignation," Grassley added in a statement. "She was the head of the division that the inspector general found inappropriately targeted groups over their political associations."
Under employment rules for federal workers, Lerner will receive full pay and benefits for an undetermined amount of time, even though she won't be going in to work at the IRS.
Lerner won't get any pay for this Friday - then again, no one will, as the entire IRS will be closed down on May 24 for a furlough day stemming from automatic budget cuts that kicked in back in March.
That news came as House Republicans were openly talking about bringing Lerner back before the House Oversight Committee, arguing that her statement made to the panel this week waived her Fifth Amendment rights.
Replacing Lerner as head of the agency's Exempt Organizations unit will be Ken Corbin, who had been the second in command of the Submission Processing unit; that move was made by the new Acting Chief of the IRS, Danny Werfel, who was named to the post last week by President Obama.
It marked a rapid fall for Lerner, who just 13 days ago was working with top officials at the IRS to orchestrate a public apology for IRS targeting of Tea Party groups; now, a day after taking the Fifth before Congress, she is on leave with pay from her job.
The personnel move came as lawmakers in the Congress left town for an extended Memorial Day break, as there is no sign that the furor over the targeting of conservative political groups at the IRS is going to go away anytime soon.
There is already another hearing scheduled, as a subcommittee of the House Appropriations panel has set a June 3 hearing with both the new Acting IRS chief and the IRS Inspector General.
"The IRS admission that individual group applications for tax-exempt status were inappropriately singled out for further review is chilling," said Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-FL), who heads that panel.
"Drip, drip, drip,” said Speaker John Boehner at his weekly news conference with reporters on Thursday. "Every day there's something new."
As for the new Acting IRS Chief Daniel Werfel, here is a note he sent to IRS employees on Thursday:
A day after invoking her Fifth Amendment rights before a U.S. House committee, IRS official Lois Lerner refused a request from the new head of the tax agency to resign from her post, and was then placed on administrative leave, as the fallout spread from the IRS targeting of more ...
