As the House prepares for several key votes on former Internal Revenue Service employee Lois G. Lerner and potential legal action, analysts say she and her attorney have mishandled their case by picking and choosing when they want to talk, and to whom they are willing to talk.Ms. Lerner faces a vote in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday that could begin the process of accusing her of contempt of Congress. The Ways and Means Committee announced that it will hold a vote Wednesday on whether to officially accuse Ms. Lerner of breaking the law by targeting tea party groups.
The congressional moves escalate House Republicans' effort to highlight Ms. Lerner's role in the IRS targeting, which has turned into a major legal battle on Capitol Hill.
Lawyers say Ms. Lerner and her legal team may have stumbled on several occasions, including by initially professing her innocence but refusing to talk to Congress last year, then agreeing to provide information to the Justice Department without any promise of immunity, and then refusing yet again to talk to House investigators about the same subject.
Hans A. Von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said courts in Washington have decided that someone can't pick and choose whom they waive their Fifth Amendment rights to, and whom they choose to speak to.
"When Lerner gave a lengthy interview to the government, she waived the Fifth. There's no doubt about it," Mr. Von Spakovsky said. "The law is crystal clear here in the District of Columbia. That means when she showed up March 5, she was obligated to prove the same information."
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