Republicans push to impeach IRS chief for allegedly lying, destroying evidence
WASHINGTON — Republicans gave an electionyear airing to their complaints about IRS chief John Koskinen on Tuesday, telling a GOP-run House committee that he should be impeached for lying to lawmakers and destroying evidence.
“Koskinen was sent to the IRS to clean it up, but it’s gotten worse,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told the House Judiciary Committee, pressing a longshot effort he’s led since last year to remove the agency’s commissioner. “As members of Congress, we have no reason to have any confidence that Mr. Koskinen will run one of the most powerful agencies with any integrity.”
Koskinen and his Democratic defenders denied the allegations, with Democratic lawmakers accusing Republicans of pursuing a political vendetta. While the IRS has conceded that it treated conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status unfairly earlier this decade, Democrats said Republicans were ignoring previous investigations that have found the IRS’ destruction of some emails sought by Congress was due to incompetence, not a purposeful effort to hide evidence.
“This resolution fails by every measure,” said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the Judiciary panel’s top Democrat. “It arises from the worst partisan instincts. It is not based on the facts.”
Citing recent travel, Koskinen declined to testify Tuesday but provided a written statement saying his agency “has responded comprehensively and in good faith” to congressional requests for documents.
But in one measure of the nasty election-year climate, Republicans on the committee refused to formally make Koskinen’s statement part of the record, with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., calling it “self-serving.”
Conservative antipathy toward the IRS intensified in 2013 when the agency conceded that it had made unusually intensive, timeconsuming demands of tea party groups attempting to qualify for tax-exempt status. Though some progressive organizations experienced similar problems, conservative organizations were singled out more often, drawing GOP wrath.
Chaffetz’s effort, cosponsored by 73 conservatives, plays to those partisan passions. It’s won support from groups like the Tea Party Patriots, who emailed a fund-raising solicitation to supporters Tuesday that also urged them to press House GOP leaders to allow a vote on impeaching Koskinen.