Lois Lerner, Head of I.R.S. Dept. on Tax-Exempt Groups, Put on Leave

BREAKING NEWS Thursday, May 23, 2013 5:55 PM EDT



Lois Lerner, the head of the Internal Revenue Service’s division on exempt organizations, was put on administrative leave Thursday, a day after she invoked the fifth amendment to the Constitution and declined to testify before a House committee investigating her division’s targeting of conservative groups.
Ms. Lerner has been under severe pressure since May 10, when she delivered an awkward apology to Tea Party and other conservative groups whose applications for 501(c)(4) tax exemptions had been singled out for special scrutiny.

At that time, she said she learned of the targeting in 2012, when Tea Party groups publicly accused the I.R.S. of mistreatment. But a Treasury inspector general’s audit released days later appeared to make it clear that she knew of the effort well before then and had tried to reshape it. Lawmakers from both parties publicly accused her of lying to them.

READ MORE »http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/us/politics/irs-official-who-refused-to-testify-is-put-on-leave.html?emc=na

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