Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) announced on Thursday that he has filed a resolution directing the House sergeant-at-arms to "arrest Lois Lerner for contempt of Congress" over the IRS targeting scandal.
Stockman said in a statement that asking the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute Lerner for "admittedly illegal activity" is a "joke." Instead, the Republican said it is up to the U.S. House to "uphold the rule of law and hold accountable those who illegally targeted American citizens for simply having different ideas than the President."
Under the proposed resolution, Lerner would be held in a Washington, D.C., jail and would be given access to an attorney and all her constitutional rights.
Credit: AFP/Getty Images
“It’s time to for House to stop tacitly endorsing this administration’s illegal activity by refusing to hold him accountable," Stockman said. "I expect Democrats to defend and even praise criminal activity. The question is whether Republican leadership will join them in mocking the House and breaking the law."
Stockman first made the announcement on Twitter:
We just filed a resolution directing the Sergeant-At-Arms to arrest Lois Lerner for contempt. Statement coming in minutes. #IRSscandal
— Rep. Steve Stockman (@SteveWorks4You) July 10, 2014Contempt of Congress is an actual criminal offense and the Supreme Court has previously upheld the right of Congress to hold people in contempt and even imprison them, the New York Times wrote in an editorial.
On May 7, the full House voted 231-187 to find Lerner in contempt of Congress, a vote that saw six Democrats join Republicans.
When called to testify about the IRS' targeting of conservative groups, Lerner pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to disclose what she knows about the scandal. In June, the IRS claimed that Lerner's hard drive had "crashed," meaning that some of the emails that Congress had been after for more than a year could be lost forever.
Lerner previously served as the director of the IRS Exempt Organizations division.
The proposal to jail Lerner will likely face strong opposition from Democrats and some Republicans.
Read the full text of the proposed resolution below:
Providing for the arrest of Lois G. Lerner to answer the charge of contempt of CongressIN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. STOCKMAN submitted the following resolution, which was referred to the Committee on ______________
RESOLUTION
Providing for the arrest of Lois G. Lerner to answer the charge of contempt of Congress
Whereas Lois G. Lerner, former Director, Exempt Organizations, Internal Revenue Service, has been found to be in contempt of Congress for willfully and intentionally refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena duly issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, thereby obstructing the Congress in the lawful exercise of its constitutionally mandated legislative powers; and,
Whereas such behavior is an insult to the dignity of the House of Representatives, an attack upon the integrity of its proceedings, works violence upon the rights of the House collectively, and therefore implicates the long-recognized inherent power of the House to punish and commit for contempt, privileged under the Constitution; and,
Whereas recent history with similarly contumacious and insolent witnesses such as Eric Himpton Holder, Junior, strongly suggests that the present statutory judicial rubric set up to punish and reform such insubordinate and obstructionist witnesses would be ineffective in this case, as it is likely that the US Attorney for the District of Columbia would refuse to perform his lawful duty to bring the offending contemnor Lerner before a Grand Jury and prosecute the same for her misconduct pursuant to section 104 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 194) and section 102 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (2 U.S.C. 192); and,
Whereas the executive and judicial branches’ prolonged and dawdling failure to prosecute Attorney General Holder’s insolent contempt of the 112th Congress strongly suggests that a like proceeding against contemnor Lerner would be similarly futile, and the threat of such prosecution has clearly been insufficient to encourage contemnor Lerner to be honest and candid with the Congress regarding the heinous actions of the Internal Revenue Service;
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Speaker issue his warrant, directed to the Sergeant-at-Arms, or his deputy, commanding him to arrest and take into custody forthwith, wherever to be found, the body of Lois G. Lerner, and bring her to the bar of the House without delay to answer to the charge of contempt of its authority, breach of its privileges, and gross and wanton insult to the integrity of its proceedings, and in the meantime keep the body of Lerner in his custody in the common jail of the District of Columbia, subject to the further order of the House. While in custody, Lerner shall enjoy no special privileges beyond those extended to her fellow inmates, shall not access any computer or telephone, and shall not be visited by anyone other than her counsel, clergy, physician, or family.
