WASHINGTON — Lois Lerner, the former IRS boss at the center of the Tea Party-targeting scandal, has agreed to break her silence and testify to a House panel, the committee chairman said Sunday — only to be disputed hours later.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who heads the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” that Lerner, who resigned last year, would waive her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent and answer questions at a Wednesday hearing.
She had been expected to refuse to testify — and her attorney, William Taylor, said later on Sunday that Issa got it wrong and that his client, in fact, would not testify.
Lerner pleaded the Fifth before Issa’s committee in May 2013, declaring her innocence in an opening statement before refusing to talk about the agency targeting Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny.