But it is yet to be seen whether the hearing will convince House Republican leaders to launch a rare, time-consuming, and resource-intensive impeachment probe so long as evidence of wrongdoing remains scant.
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Jordan asked Koskinen if the IRS was still targeting conservative groups.
Koskinen was scheduled to testify Wednesday on the drive by hard-line conservatives.
“I accept that it is up to you to judge my overall record, but I believe that impeachment would be improper”, the statement reads.
“It would create disincentives for many good people to serve”, he said. He insisted that he responded honestly-despite the fact those answers were later proven false-and in “good faith as events unfolded” regarding former IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer crash.
The charges are rooted in allegations that the IRS improperly targeted conservative political groups seeking tax-exempt status for special internal scrutiny starting in 2010. It notes that that the U.S. Treasury Department’s inspector general concluded that “No evidence was uncovered that any IRS employees had been directed to destroy or hide information” from Congress or other federal investigators.
Koskinen said he was not aware of the tapes’ destruction when he testified, and a Treasury Department inspector general concluded a year ago that there was no evidence the emails had been destroyed as part of a cover-up.
In a letter dated last Thursday that Democrats released on Tuesday, J. Russell George, the IRS inspector general, wrote that “no additional information has been uncovered that changes our conclusion in the report”.
“The old midnight shift guys in Martinsburg excuse”, scoffed Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which is pushing impeachment. But John Koskinen said he’s been truthful and cooperative and insisted it would be wrong to impeach him.
“That taxpayer would be in a world of trouble”, he said. Wednesday’s hearing isn’t designed that way; instead Koskinen was set to give a prepared statement and then take questions from the panel.
But he’s also conceding that his agency did not preserve all the documents congressional investigators have requested. “I regret both of those failings”.
WASHINGTON (AP) IRS chief John Koskinen is defending himself against an election-season impeachment effort in a face-to-face confrontation with the Republican-run House Judiciary Committee.
Last week, members of the Freedom Caucus agreed to Wednesday’s hearing after dropping plans to force an immediate House impeachment vote.
In prior impeachments of the modern era, the House has only voted after a meticulous fact-finding process and a recommendation from the Judiciary Committee.
However, one lawmaker in that group, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., has not ruled out forcing an impeachment vote before the November elections. “But as I’ve said we clearly failed in areas of preservation of documents, and I’ve said that was a mistake”.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he prefers for matters to make their way to the floor for votes in “regular order” – that is, by way of consideration by committees of jurisdiction.
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“Did you fail to use every tool?”
