House votes to hold former IRS official in contempt

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

House votes to hold former IRS official in contempt
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

By a vote of 231 to 187, the House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to hold former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for not cooperating with an investigation into the agency's targeting of specific organizations.

Last year, Lerner admitted during an American Bar Association conference that the IRS singled out certain groups, including those with "tea party" in their names, the Washington Post says. A Justice Department investigation was held, and Lerner was called to testify at hearings on Capitol Hill, where she invoked her Fifth Amendment right. She last appeared before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March, and again invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.