House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz planned to testify to the GOP-run Judiciary panel on Tuesday. Chaffetz, whose resolution is co-sponsored by 73 GOP lawmakers, accuses Koskinen of hindering congressional investigators trying to gather evidence about how the IRS mistreated conservative groups earlier this decade, actions the agency has acknowledged and apologized for. “You can’t be under a duly issued subpoena and mislead Congress, and when you provide false testimony there has to be a outcome”, he said. He says he won’t appear Tuesday because he’s been busy traveling.
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Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, whose department includes the IRS, criticized Republicans.
The House hasn’t impeached a senior agency head since the 19th century and Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., has signaled he doesn’t favor such a step in this instance. Many Republicans would rather not launch a campaign-season impeachment effort with virtually no chance of success, even as they try persuading voters that they are running Congress constructively.
Congress hasn’t tried to impeach a US official other than the president since 1876, when the House went after War Secretary William W. Belknap, and no official below cabinet level has ever faced impeachment.
The Senate’s minority Democrats could easily block the effort, leaving many to believe that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., won’t even try.
Congressional Republicans have long detested the IRS.
Judiciary committee chairman Bob Goodlatte says Koskinen faces “very serious allegations of misconduct”.
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Koskinen said he learned in April 2014 of a separate crash of Lerner’s computer hard drive, but didn’t tell Congress until that June because he waited until his agency understood how much data had been lost. The IRS says it has cooperated. They allege that he made false statements before Congress, did not notify Congress about missing emails and failed to comply with a congressional subpoena. And the IRS inspector general concluded that while data containing requested agency emails has been destroyed, there is no proof that that was done purposely.
