and while i would very much like to answer the committee s questions today, i ve been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right not to testify or answer questions related to the subject matter of this hearing. after very careful consideration, i ve decided to follow my counsel s advice and not testify or answer any of the questions today. if you re going to take the fifth, that is, like, the deluxe version of taking the fifth, right? when a person pleads the fifth, they are referencing the specific part of that amendment to the constitution that says that a person cannot be forced to be a witness against himself. the irs official who heads the division that has been caught up in this scandal about processing applications from ideologically specific groups, she pled the fifth today because she said she believed the committee was trying to get her to say things on record under oath, essentially for the purpose of prosecuting her for those statements, even though she says
and while i would very much like to answer the committee s questions today, i ve been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right not to testify or answer questions related to the subject matter of this hearing. after very careful consideration, i ve decided to follow my counsel s advice and not testify or answer any of the questions today. if you re going to take the fifth, that is, like, the deluxe version of taking the fifth, right? when a person pleads the fifth, they are referencing the specific part of that amendment to the constitution that says that a person cannot be forced to be a witness against himself. the irs official who heads the division that has been caught up in this scandal about processing applications from ideologically specific groups, she pled the fifth today because she said she believed the committee was trying to get her to say things on record under oath, essentially for the purpose of prosecuting her for those statements, even though she says
supervisors on how to process these applications. this is simply unacceptable. when the irs finally got to processing applications, employees with little or no oversight sent overly extensive requests for information to many of these groups which understandably angered them. new processes had been put in place to prevent these abuses in the future. but much more needs to be done. according to the ig audit, at least part of the reason the reason for the mismanagement is inadequate guidance on how to process these cases. the original statute passed by congress requires 501c4
information over a year ago. so now the question has become, did she not know what she was approving? after resignations and a contentious hearing on capitol hill, there is growing confusion over who knew what and when during the multiple years the irs was targeting tea party groups. lois lerner, who heads up the cincinnati irs office that oversees tax-exempt organizations apologized last week after admitting that her division delayed processing applications for hundreds of tea party groups. but now the richmond tea party is charging that lerner is part of the scheme she is trying to fix. we found what we think is kind of a smoking gun. reporter: larry in ordervick runs the richmond group that first filed for tax-exempt status in december of 2009. the irs sent his group two more requests for information over the next 25 months. lerner s signature is on one of those letters from march of 2012. the 55 questions are the ones
midnight, as you said, they would stay that way for at least 30 hours, maybe longer. now, the government has done this before, the longest and, perhaps, most notable shutdown began on this day 15 years ago and lasted all the way until january 6, 1996, and when that happened, here s some of what went on. the national institutes of health stopped taking new patients, the c.d.c. stopped disease surveillance. more than 3500 bankruptcy cases were suspended. they stopped recruiting and testing federal law enforcement officials including 400 border patrol agents. the atf had major delays in processing applications for alcohol and tobacco and firearms. 368 sites maintained by the national parks service closed. that affected seven million visitors and cost surrounding areas over $14 million a day. also 200,000 applications by americans for passports had to be shelved and services given to