The head of the Internal Revenue Service never asked to lead the agency, he said in written testimony on Tuesday, adding that he had been “happily retired” and that the move to impeach him was “wholly improper.”

“I have great respect for our institutions of government,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in the statement to the House Judiciary Committee, a hearing he declined to attend. “When I began my services as commissioner … I took over an agency under investigation by six different bodies and buffeted by ongoing, serious controversy. I regret that, in the period since then, we have not been able to bring these matters to a conclusion.”