Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the division implicated in the tax agency’s improper targeting of conservative groups, will refuse to testify before a congressional committee investigating the scandal:

A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups. . . .
Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight committee Wednesday. . . .
“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif. The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

The IRS scandal erupted May 10 after Lerner admitted that the agency singled out the applications of Tea Party groups for federal non-profit status. Lerner’s admission came four days before the publication of a report by the Treasury Department’s inspector general that provided details of what it called the use of “inappropriate criteria” in processing applications. President Obama‘s spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that White House deputy chief of staff Mark Childress had conferred with Treasury Department officials about the scandal before Lerner made her first public statement about it.

READ MORE:

• Richard Simon and Joseph Tanfani, Los Angeles Times: Top IRS official will invoke Fifth Amendment
• Jennifer Epstein, Politico: White House, Treasury discussed how to present IRS story