{"id":12349,"date":"2013-05-22T16:25:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T16:25:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-05-22T16:25:46","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T16:25:46","slug":"issa_lets_lerner_off_the_hook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2013\/05\/22\/issa_lets_lerner_off_the_hook\/","title":{"rendered":"Issa Lets Lerner Off the Hook"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: The IRS hearings today, the Issa committee<\/a>. Folks, yesterday, after the Apple tax hearings<\/a> at the Senate, I said, “This is all just a game,” and I think this thing that happened this morning with Lois Lerner showing up… Issa basically let her get away with it. She\u2019s gone. He looked clueless, like didn\u2019t know what was going on, didn\u2019t know how to deal with this.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay, let me tell you what happened today at the IRS hearings. Lois Lerner, who ran the whole kit and caboodle and was… By the way, this was the first time I had a close-up look at her. This is an angry woman. You have to be very careful in making judgments about people based on physical appearance, although I\u2019ve gotten really good at it. I can spot people out there and I can tell you who the libs are pretty much by just what I see. But, in this case, I already know that she is.<\/p>\n

I already know that she\u2019s a liberal, I know that she is in the same mode as Barack Obama, and now I know this is a woman who\u2019s angry. This is the woman who was demanding to know the content of prayers of Tea Party groups that were applying for tax-exempt status. This is the woman who, in a deposition with Oliver North, was demanding to know what Pat Robertson said in a prayer about him. This is a woman obsessed with the Christian right, Lois Lerner. This is a woman obsessed with religious people.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By that I mean she is afraid of them. Angry at them. They are an enemy. That\u2019s obviously true now, based on what we know. This woman is the woman who said yesterday she\u2019s gonna take the Fifth Amendment. She was not gonna answer any questions. That caused a lot of people on the left to get very frightened. In fact, we got sound bites coming up. People on the left — media people really — are really worried this IRS scandal is gonna really, really amount to something bad for Obama.<\/p>\n

Every day there\u2019s a new bit of information. Every day there\u2019s a new denial from the White House. Every day there\u2019s a new really sorry excuse for why Obama didn\u2019t know about it. The media is getting very, very worried. All of this is starting to sound very flimsy. Now you\u2019ve got one of the head honchos out there claiming and taking the Fifth Amendment saying, “I don\u2019t want to answer this \u2019cause I could incriminate myself.” That right there implies criminal activity here.<\/p>\n

The regime has been doing everything it can to say, “No, this isn\u2019t a crime. There\u2019s no partisanship here. You know, it was some out-of-control, rogue employees in the Cincinnati office,” and then it moved to the Washington office. But they\u2019ve been doing everything they can to downplay the political aspects of this in terms of the partisanship. So this Lois Lerner babe shows up today, and I\u2019m telling you: She is sitting there angry. It is obvious this woman is loaded for bear, in a partisan political sense.<\/p>\n

She shows up — I\u2019m watching — and she makes a statement. In her statement, she denies everything, and then takes the Fifth. She says she\u2019s not gonna answer anything. Darrell Issa, the committee chairman, basically said, “Well, okay. That\u2019s that, then!” But Trey Gowdy, congressman from South Carolina says, “Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute here. I agree with the ranking Democrat in this committee, Elijah Cummings: This is like a courtroom.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“She can\u2019t march in here and offer a statement and then issue a denial and then take the Fifth, Mr. Chairman. She\u2019s already testified, so she has waived her Fifth Amendment privilege because she testified.” Issa responded (stuttering), turned off his microphone, consulted counsel, came back and asked her two more questions. She gave the same answer. (paraphrased) “I told you, I\u2019m not answering anything, guys. I\u2019m not gonna tell you anything.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m not gonna answer one question you ask me about this.” And Issa excuses her, and she and her lawyers get up and leave. I\u2019m like everybody else watching this, “What the hell just happened here? We just let a witness go! So I\u2019m waiting for some reaction from legal beagle friends of mine. I haven\u2019t heard back from any of them that I asked. But I want to know if Trey Gowdy\u2019s right. I want to know if he\u2019s got a point.<\/p>\n

Lois Lerner shows up, she makes a statement, and then issues her denial, and then inserts or invokes her Fifth Amendment right — which she\u2019s clearly free to do, but she\u2019s afraid it might incriminate her criminally. So the media\u2019s all concerned about this. They really are. “This is the worst thing that coulda happened to the regime,” they\u2019re saying, “the optics of this.” But there aren\u2019t any optics. Issa shoulda kept her there all afternoon and asked her a hundred questions and made her invoke the Fifth on every one of them!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how the Democrats would do it. There should be some discussion on whether or not she can show up and make a statement, and issue a denial, and then invoke the Fifth and get out of everything, get out of answering questions. Trey Gowdy said, “This can\u2019t happen! She\u2019s gotta sit here and answer our questions.” By the way, the place erupted in applause when he said that. Let me play you the audio sound bites of this. We\u2019ll start with Lois Lerner herself. She sits down, she declares her innocence, and then clams up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

LERNER: I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee. And while I would very much like to answer the committee\u2019s questions today, I\u2019ve been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right not to testify or answer questions related to the subject matter of this hearing.<\/p>\n

RUSH: And she continued…<\/p>\n

LERNER: After very careful consideration, I\u2019ve decided to follow my counsel\u2019s advice and not testify or answer any of the questions today. Because I\u2019m asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I\u2019ve done something wrong. I have not. One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals, and that is the protection I\u2019m invoking today.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. Well, this administration seems to not care about any amendment but the Fifth. First Amendment? To hell with that! Second Amendment? To hell with that! Third Amendment? They don\u2019t even know what it is. Fourth Amendment? To hell with that! Fifth Amendment, though? That really counts! “The Fifth Amendment, that\u2019s the big one! That\u2019s one we at the Obama regime believe in, because it is the Fifth Amendment that allows us to tell you to go to hell, and that we didn\u2019t do anything.”<\/p>\n

Trey Gowdy from South Carolina, after Lerner\u2019s remarks you just heard, said this…<\/p>\n

GOWDY: Mr. Issa, Mr. Cummings just said we should run this like a courtroom, and I agree with him. She just testified. She just waived her Fifth Amendment right to privilege. You don\u2019t get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross-examination. That\u2019s not the way it works. She waived her right to Fifth Amendment privilege by issuing an opening statement. She ought to stand here and answer our questions.<\/p>\n

GALLERY: (applause)<\/p>\n