Will Darrell Issa and Speaker Boehner proceed with charges against Lois Lerner for contempt of congress?? I seriously doubt it...not when the U.S. Atty General Eric Holder, who is glued to the hip of the President, is the one charged with prosecuting the case. page 7.... Under 2 U.S.C. §192, a person who has been “summoned as a witness” by either house or a committee thereof to testify or to produce documents and who fails to do so, or who appears but refuses to respond to questions, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to one year. 2 U.S.C. § 194 establishes the procedure to be followed by the House or Senate if it chooses to refer a recalcitrant witness to the courts for criminal prosecution rather than try him at the bar of the House or Senate. Under the procedure outlined in Section 194,45 “the following steps precede judicial proceedings under [the statute]: (1) approval by committee;46 (2) calling up and reading the committee report on the floor; (3) either (if Congress is in session) House approval of a resolution authorizing the Speaker to certify the report to the U.S. Attorney for prosecution, or (if Congress is not in session) an independent determination by the Speaker to certify the report;47 [and] (4) certification by the Speaker to the appropriate U.S. Attorney for prosecution.”48 The criminal contempt statute and corresponding procedure are punitive in nature. It is used when the House or Senate wants to punish a recalcitrant witness and, by doing so, deter others from similar contumacious conduct.49 The criminal sanction is not coercive because the witness generally will not be able to purge himself by testifying or supplying subpoenaed documents after he has been voted in contempt by the committee and the House or Senate. Consequently, once a witness has been voted in contempt, he lacks an incentive for cooperating with the committee. However, although the courts have rejected arguments that defendants had purged themselves,50 in a few instances the House has certified to the U.S. Attorney that further proceedings concerning contempts were not necessary where compliance with subpoenas occurred after contempt citations had been voted but before referral of the cases to grand juries.51 https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34114.pdf
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:56:03 +0000
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