A lawyer working with conservative groups argued Monday that President Obama’s Justice Department should prosecute IRS Commissioner John Koskinen for lying to Congress, since President George W. Bush’s Justice Department prosecuted New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens for the same offense.
“There was a scandal here, and John Koskinen testified multiple times to Congress falsely,” Cleta Mitchell, who is working with conservative groups hit by the IRS targeting scandal, said on C-SPAN. “He falsely testified, and he allowed and really presided over destruction of important evidence about the source of this targeting scandal.”
She was discussing the impeachment resolution Republicans have filed against Koskinen, and argued the resolution is needed because the Obama administration has refused to act. She implied that failure to act shows a level of partisanship in the current administration that was not seen under Bush.
“Congress sent a letter when Roger Clemens, the New York Yankees pitcher, testified before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee when the Democrats had control of Congress, and he testified about the use of steroids, he said he didn’t use steroids,” she said.
“Henry Waxman [D-Calif.] sent a letter to the Justice Department, the Bush Justice Department, and said you should prosecute him because he lied, and the Department of Justice prosecuted Roger Clemens, not once but twice, because the first trial ended in a mistrial and a hung jury,” she added.
“John Koskinen has lied to Congress, and this is very important, and I think Congress needs to do something about it, because it is clear that the Department of Justice under this president is not going to do anything about it,” she added.
Mitchell said that Koskinen presided over the IRS when it said it would produce all the emails from former IRS employee Lois Lerner, after which the IRS said it lost many of them. He later testified that all were lost, and it was discovered that many were erased.
