Appearing on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley, William Taylor, the attorney for former IRS official Lois Lerner said she invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid being bullied by members of Congress.
Lerner, who until 2013 was the director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Unit is a central figure in the IRS scandal.
"There was no pretense that this would be a fair process. From the beginning, the Republican majority has screamed, without any evidence, about things that she did, and made it clear that," Taylor said when asked why Lerner has repeatedly taken the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying before Congress. "The only purpose of having her there would be to vilify her."
"If she's done nothing wrong, she doesn't need to be subjected to the kind of bullying that goes on in that committee," he added.
Most recently, emails surfaced showing Lerner suggested referring Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley or a group that was paying him to speak for an audit after accidentally receiving an invitation to an event that was meant for Grassley.