House Republicans on Thursday engaged in an early celebration of “Tax Day” by calling for the impeachment of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
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“We simply have to show that this House has standards, that Congress has rules and you can only thumb your nose so far, you can only lie and defraud and in some ways be incompetent before there has to be an impeachment,” Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican of Texas, said on the House floor.
The move came just days before the April 18 date when Americans will have earned enough on average to pay their taxes for the year.
Referencing a Washington Examiner report published on Tuesday, Gohmert said it was unacceptable that the agency refuses to verify Social Security numbers out of fear that it would diminish the number of tax returns submitted by illegal immigrants. “That’s the IRS director’s reasoning,” Gohmert said. “It’s OK for someone illegally in the United States to be engaged in identity theft.”
Other members emphasized the agency’s destruction of documents that had been requested by Congress in connection with its investigation into former IRS Commissioner Lois Lerner’s targeting of conservative groups.
“We subpoenaed documents and we bring in the commission to testify and we are trying to get the truth,” said Florida Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis. “And yet what has happened? They’ve destroyed backup tapes that were under two congressional subpoenas.
“We need to get the dust off the impeachment resolutions, get it up on Judiciary, pass it out, and let the House make the decision about whether it’s valid,” Desantis added.
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House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced a resolution to impeach Koskinen in October. The House Judiciary Committee is responsible for approving articles of impeachment before they can move forward.
“The framers gave us a safety valve to get rid of somebody who is not serving the best interest of the nation, and clearly John Koskinen is not,” Chaffetz said in a Thursday interview with Roll Call. “His record is clear and he should be removed from office.”
Yet with House leadership more reserved, the prospect of the effort gaining momentum is dimmed. “I think that the IRS is not being led well,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said during a press conference on Thursday. “I think the IRS misled Americans. I think the IRS is not on top of their game with respect to preventing hacking from occurring in the future, cybertheft. This is a problem.”
However, he added, “As far as these other issues, look, what I think what we need to do is win an election, get better people in these agencies and reform the tax code.”
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“That’s one path,” Chaffetz said in response to Ryan’s suggestion of winning the presidential election. “But I want the bureaucracy to know that if they do something as reprehensible as destroying documents, there is an action that Congress can take.
“It hasn’t been done in 140 years to impeach a civil officer, but we think we’re on firm ground. It is in the Constitution,” Chaffetz said.
