But Lerner should have been gone shortly after this scandal first unraveled in the press. Not only is she the person who was in charge of the group that wrongly targeted conservatives, she dishonestly testified that she didn’t know about the targeting until 2012, when the inspector general found she knew as early as 2011. She’s the person who told a conference call of reporters, “I’m not that good at math,” even though she’s a manager in an agency that’s at bottom all about math. 
 
 What I think is even more politically and morally suspect – and has gotten very little attention -- Lerner actually presided over the bizarre, bumbling rollout of the story, by planting a question about the controversy with an attorney at an American Bar Association conference. According to Morgan Lewis tax lawyer Celia Roady, Lerner herself asked that Roady inquire about whether the IRS had targeted conservative groups. That led to Lerner’s public apology – and the scandal swirling around the White House, which found itself surprised by the sudden disclosure. 
 
 The invaluable tax-policy expert David Cay Johnston called for Lerner’s firing a week ago – and that was even before there was proof that she had set up the question at the ABA conference. ||||| Lois Lerner, the IRS staffer who is under fire for her role in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups, has been placed on administrative leave, according to congressional aides. 
 
 
 
 She will still be paid while on leave, a congressional aide said, as required under civil service rules. 
 
 Lerner, who heads an IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, first disclosed the extra scrutiny the agency gave to Tea Party groups almost two weeks ago when answering a planted question at a Washington legal conference. 
 
 Since then, lawmakers from across the political spectrum have said that they believe Lerner misled them and have called for her dismissal. 
 
 
 
 Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), a senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said in a Thursday statement that new acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel had asked Lerner to resign — and that Lerner was only placed on leave after she declined that request. Aides on Capitol Hill confirmed that Lerner had refused to resign. 
 
 In her first public appearance since the disclosure, Lerner on Wednesday invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination at a House Oversight hearing. 
 
 
 
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 The IRS announced in an internal memo circulated to the media that Ken Corbin will be taking over as the acting director of the tax-exempt organizations division. Corbin, a 25-year veteran at the IRS, has been deputy director in a division that processed millions of tax returns a year. 
 
 Lerner’s move to administrative leave comes after President Obama pushed out acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller over his role in the targeting. Werfel, formerly a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget, took over as acting commissioner on Wednesday. 
 
 
 
 The IRS also announced after the controversy broke that Joseph Grant, Lerner’s boss at the agency, will retire in early June. 
 
 
 
 Lerner will likely have to make her way back to Capitol Hill in the coming weeks, after House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) concluded that she waved her rights against self-incrimination by defending herself in an opening statement at Wednesday's hearing. 
 
 
 
 Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday became the latest prominent lawmakers to call for Lerner to be removed, in a letter to Werfel made public shortly before news of Lerner’s administrative leave broke. 
 
 
 
 Reps. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), Joe Crowley (D-N.Y) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) have also called for Lerner to be pushed out. 
 
 "In naming Ken Corbin as acting director to replace Lois Lerner, the administration has taken a strong step to address serious mistakes made by the IRS Exempt Organization Division," Levin said in a statement. "This and further corrective action are vital in restoring the confidence of the American people." 
 
 
 
 According to a Treasury audit, Lerner found out in June 2011 that IRS staffers were giving extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status by searching for organizations with names like “Tea Party” and “patriots.” 
 
 
 
 Lerner immediately ordered that the criteria targeting conservative groups be changed, but staffers in a Cincinnati office eventually once again implemented more political screening criteria, according to the audit. 
 
 
 
 “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee,” Lerner told House Oversight on Wednesday. 
 
 
 
 “Because I'm asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I've done something wrong. I have not.” 
 
 
 
 The audit, from Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, also found that some groups waited months, even years, for their tax-exempt applications to be approved. 
 
 
 
 National Review first reported that Lerner was being placed on administrative leave. 
 
 The publication also reported late Thursday that letters suggest Lerner was directly involved in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups more than nine months after she first learned of the activity. 
 
 — This story was updated at 7:34 p.m. 
 

– The IRS official at the center of the recent scandal has been placed on administrative leave, reports the National Review. Lois Lerner had been in charge of the agency's tax-exempt unit, which singled out conservative groups for added scrutiny. Her immediate boss already has been forced into early retirement, and critics have been calling for Lerner's head to roll as well. (Her role in using a planted question to make the controversy public hasn't helped her cause.) On Capitol Hill yesterday, Lerner denied any wrongdoing but invoked the Fifth in refusing to answer questions. The chair of the House Oversight panel, Darrell Issa, says he plans to call her back to testify, arguing that she waived her right to the Fifth by making an opening statement, reports the Hill. The decision to put Lerner on leave comes days after the new acting chief of the IRS, Daniel Werfel, took over.