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Lois Lerner Wants Her Lawsuit Testimony Permanently Sealed

Lois Lerner Wants Her Lawsuit Testimony Permanently Sealed

Tea Party leader targeted by Lerner and IRS: “Honest people don’t sit around worrying that their testimony … might be scrutinized by the public”

By now, most people know the back story.

In the run-up to the 2012 election, Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations were subjected to unnecessary scrutiny and even harassment by the IRS to whom they were applying for non-profit status.

Obama was president and Lois Lerner oversaw the division of the IRS which handled the approval of charitable organizations. It was an outrageous weaponization of a powerful government agency.

Lerner pleaded the fifth and was somehow able to retire and keep her pension. Lerner finally testified this year but now wants her testimony in a lawsuit by Tea Party groups sealed permanently citing alleged concerns for her safety.

Stephen Dinan reported at the Washington Times:

Lerner, Paz say they fear physical harm from enraged public, want IRS testimony sealed permanently

Former IRS executive Lois G. Lerner told a federal court last week that members of her family, including “young children,” face death threats and a real risk of physical harm if her explanation of the tea party targeting scandal becomes public.

Ms. Lerner and Holly Paz, her deputy at the IRS, filed documents in court Thursday saying tapes and transcripts of depositions they gave in a court case this year must remain sealed in perpetuity, or else they could spur an enraged public to retaliate.

“Whenever Mss. Lerner and Paz have been in the media spotlight, they have faced death threats and harassment,” attorneys for the two women argued.

Ms. Lerner and Ms. Paz gave taped depositions in a class-action lawsuit brought by tea party groups demanding answers and compensation for having been subjected to illegal targeting for their political beliefs.

Mark Meckler, one of the co-founders of the Tea Party Patriots, is one of the people behind the lawsuit mentioned above. He has some thoughts about Lerner’s concerns. He writes at Townhall:

Lois Lerner is Lying Again, This Time About Me

In October, the federal government admitted they targeted these patriotic Americans and agreed to settle the class-action lawsuit in Ohio and a tea party challenge in the District of Columbia. If the court approves the class settlement, the government will have to fork over $3.5 million, including compensation to the tea party groups, merely the first step in showing the public how the IRS was turned into a political weapon against Americans. Thankfully, recordings and transcripts of the depositions of former IRS executive Lois G. Lerner could give the public a really great glimpse into their targeting.

However, Lerner and her former IRS deputy Holly Paz are now saying these records must remain sealed forever, because they fear for their safety. They claim that the public would be furious if they learned the truth of what they’d done, and even pointed out one person in particular who has stoked the potential for violence against them.

Me.

See, at that speech at the fairground, with my wife and mom smiling at me from the front row, I called the IRS officials “thugs” for the way they used their power against us. For four years, they harassed innocent American citizens for their political beliefs and weaponized an arm of the government to intimidate Americans during a hotly contested presidential election. It was an inexcusable display of government corruption. Now, we’re suddenly supposed to believe Lerner is scared of a guy in a cowboy hat talking to a bunch of little old ladies at a tea party event? ….

Honest people don’t sit around worrying that their testimony—especially when it merely recounts their own official acts while supposedly in the service of the public—might be scrutinized by the public. They did something horrible and got caught.  In fact, I doubt they’re even genuinely scared.

Obama said there wasn’t a smidgen of corruption at the IRS. Doesn’t that mean Lerner has nothing to fear if her testimony is made public?

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Comments

face death threats and a real risk of physical harm

Slow Joe would tell her to quit whining and buy a shotgun.

Lois, if you weren’t a LYING CORRUPT FELON you wouldn’t have to worry !

Wasn’t this supposed to be the most transparent administration in history?

Obama’s own words:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxCVENhSq9M

This shouldn’t be legal. Testimony in a court by government officials should never be sealed unless it deals with classified secrets. In that scenario the testimony should be sealed only as long as the item is classified.

A death threat, not a good thing, is not something that should allow a government employee to hide her testimony about her actions as a government employee.

A good leftist! She wants to be immune from any consequence resulting from her corrupt behavior. No accountability and no consequences. Nice. Her victims pay but does she care about them?

I wish her no physical harm but she should never get another night of restful sleep.

I do not think she is important enough to be seriously threatened!

    Subotai Bahadur in reply to johnnycab23513. | November 24, 2017 at 2:40 pm

    There is a Chinese saying to the effect that you kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

    Even if she is not important, if she suffers real consequences for her illegal behavior, how eager will other members of the Left be to act illegally knowing that there is now a non-zero chance of consequences?

    She is to Obamas legacy.

    the threats were probably from the higher ups on her own team if any of this gets out

“Lerner, Paz say they fear physical harm from enraged Clintons and Obama…
FIFY

Honest people don’t sit around worrying that their testimony …

To be fair, Lerner has never claimed to be honest.

Lerner, Hillary, Bill, Holder, Lynch, and Comey should begin to balance the scales a bit.

Former federal employees Lerner and Paz are asking a federal employee / federal officer, a federal judge, to protect them.

And people are wondering what the ruling’s gonna be?

Maybe they are worried that the testimony will be shown to contain more lies when it is read by some of the participants.

Not just no but HECK NO! Plus let’s unseal all of obamas records and get a good look at those too.

Lerner’s body should be sealed – in a prison. For the rest of her life.

Subotai Bahadur | November 24, 2017 at 2:42 pm

Just to get it on record, both wings of the UniParty and the corrupt Federal judiciary were complicit in the attacks on the TEA Party and anyone else to the right of Trotsky. They are all at risk of retaliation, and therefore the courts will grant her protection. At least until it gets out by one route or another. Then it is “Katy bar the door” on all of them.

Doesn’t the constitution mention something about a speedy and PUBLIC trial?

I’m thinking Lerner is going to receive an education in The Streisand Effect, courtesy of The Tea Party.

VenturaCapitalist | November 24, 2017 at 7:32 pm

Remember that cockroach Colleen Kelley, the head of the IRS union was at the White House practically every day planning this racket.

I do not think that Lerner nor anybody else is at risk from the Tea Parties.

The Tea Parties get an admission of malfeasance, and get a settlement, vindicating their claims that the IRS persecuted them.

So where is their motivation to harm Lerner? They won.

Further, what is the effect of sealing Lerner’s testimony? That move would deprive the Tea Parties, the general public, and the Congress of important information, namely the explanation for why the Tea Parties won. It gives the Democratic Party free rein to lie about why the Tea Parties won, and it gives Congress an excuse to fail to act on rules to prevent future malfeasance, and it deprives the general public of the information needed to decide whether their Congresscritters are acting in the public interest.

“If the court approves the class settlement, the government will have to fork over $3.5 million, including compensation to the tea party groups, merely the first step in showing the public how the IRS was turned into a political weapon against Americans”

Meanwhile, Lerner suffers no penalty whatsoever for having masterminded this IRS scheme because she’s not paying a dime towards any settlement.

Which is more nauseating, the stink of obama, or the stink of lerner?