Congressional Republicans have long had IRS chief John Koskinen in their sights. In October of 2015, he narrowly avoided impeachment.
Now, they’re demanding his resignation — or else.
A top House Republican introduced a resolution Wednesday censuring the IRS chief, marking the latest step in the GOP’s war against the agency over its treatment of conservative organizations — and bringing Koskinen a step closer to the impeachment they’ve long sought.
The four-page resolution calls for the resignation or firing of Koskinen, claiming the commissioner has failed to cooperate with a congressional investigation of the agency. It accuses him of conduct “incompatible with his duties and inconsistent with the trust and confidence placed in him as an officer of the United States.”
The measure by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, couldn’t force him from the job, though, even if the House were to approve it.
But the resolution voices the longtime hostility of many conservative groups and lawmakers toward the tax-collecting agency. Their enmity escalated in 2013 when the IRS conceded that it had subjected right-leaning tea party groups to excessive scrutiny when examining their applications for tax-exempt status.
Chaffetz proposed his measure a week before the House Judiciary Committee plans to begin hearings on whether to impeach Koskinen, as conservatives have demanded.
In a written statement, Chaffetz said he considers his resolution “a precursor to impeachment, as it allows the House the opportunity to formally condemn Mr. Koskinen.”
President Barack Obama appointed Koskinen to take over the IRS in December 2013 after many top officials left the agency following the uproar. His term expires in November 2017.
Chaffetz’s resolution accuses Koskinen of failing to provide congressional investigators with subpoenaed evidence, not testifying truthfully and taking three months to reveal to Congress that emails considered important to the probe were missing.
Several congressional committees, including the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Chaffetz leads, have investigated.
The IRS has disputed Republican allegations that Koskinen has been unhelpful, saying last year, “We have fully cooperated with all of the investigations.” The agency says it has provided investigators with more than 1 million pages of documents and has testified at more than 30 congressional hearings.
A flash point has been now-retired Lois Lerner, who headed the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status.
In 2014, the IRS disclosed that it had lost emails to and from Lerner that GOP congressional investigators were trying to acquire. Chaffetz’s resolution says that while Koskinen was in charge, 422 IRS backup computer tapes containing up to 24,000 of Lerner’s emails were destroyed, an incident the IRS claims was an accident.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Why do they ALWAYS give these sorry lowlifes a choice? I don’t want the SOB to have the luxury of retiring with full benefits…… I want him imprisoned and be placed in confinement for the rest of his life with No TV, No Internet, and No communication with the outside world!! This holds true for Every other lowlife in Washington including Obama and Hilldabill.
Exactly!
AGREED 100%
You can’t get away with “no TV,” but, if we send him to Sheriff Arpaio of Mericopa County, AZ (Phoenix area), all he will have available to watch is Sesame Street and The Weather Channel.
And live in a tent with Bologna sandwiches. Sheriff Arpaio says if the troops in Iraq can live in a tent his prisoners can too. Just the place for Koskinen. Arizona temperatures are not up to summer levels yet but they are coming. Pink suits too.
Arizona Jim
Sounds good to me and the same for his cohort Lois Lerner. She deserves it, too!!!
Isn’t this what happens to all lYING KRUDS … Even ODUMBO gets his PERKS for life for Being alYING Incompetent A-SHOLE so why not one of his Appointed IDIOTS???
A complete little weasel, but we wouldn’t expect any less from the most transparent administration in the history of the United States as outlined by “Barry” President Obozo himself.
A joke. Ther slime balls operate with impunity because of the head slimeball. We all know there was targeting. It’s very clear. My question is who told Lois Lerner to act as she did? The current director has no fear of congress or their interrogations
Get some balls. Impeach.
Hang the conspirator
Send him to Gitmo with Obama and Clinton
Whether appointed or voted in, when corruption occurs, they must be removed…no one should ever be above he law! We have to do away with “appointed” like czars, they are never vetted and make and change laws, illegally! Get rid of lobbyists and czars! And, it should be public information about anyone in public office, no more sealed documents! It is my hope that Obama is brought up on charges of treason and faces the firing squad!
And no one should be allowed to retire with FULL BENEFITS. Mrs. Lerner needs to be in jail beside her boss.
I have not said that—-it’s your way of being bias—and it looks like your web site is BIAS
I never cease to be amazed that the IRS operates under a different standard from what it imposes on us. I’m going to guess that I would be out of luck if I accidentally destroyed supporting documents for a tax deduction I hoped to take.
Four people should be jailed. Koskinen, Lerner. Hillary, Obama. For crimes to the government.we the people have had it with these guys killing our government.
It seems that if you work as a government bureaucrat you can commit all kinds of crimes and only have to resign and then receive full benefits. These kinds of people should be fired , charged and sent to prison if convicted. If you are any kind of U,S. government employee you are immune from ANY punishment for wrongdoing. Case in point, Obama.
the reason the democrat Marxist party want to fight against the removal of this Marxist bastard is he does the bidding against people the marxist don’t want around. They have proved time and time again the IRS is the Marxist gestopo wing of the progressive Marxists democrat party. It is time to reverse Woodrow Wilson Marxist strangle hold on income tax( he implemented it) & the beginning of redistribution. Another Marxist tennet. Get the UN out of America, abolish and convict those higher ups that knew what they were doing in their own conspiring against fellow Americans. This is a scourge, just like any plague only in human form. The idea of ruining people’s lives for a political outcome that has people suffer and alter ones life should have those who practice this on the end of a nuse. We need to rid ourself of this epidemic. NOW, while it,s not to late
100% agreement on throw the United Nations headquarters out of the USA. Pay them the money we owed them until 9/ 11/ 2001 . Let them meet in some other place and give the diplomats 90 days to get the eff out of our country!!!
The ship is sinking. It is unfortunate that impeachment was thwarted. But one way or another he should be removed from office. It is time for all of Obama’s appointees and lackeys to resign and leave office. They will all soon be out of work anyway. They may as well get a start on the new job search.
If we put hemp into mass production for fuel and oil and food and for the raw materials for the stuff of life…and to heal the planet (hemp, the tree of life), plus if we print interest free constitutionally sound US currency, …the whole alphabet agency thing goes away as corruption becomes obsolete in a truly free and open society. The bankers prohibited hemp because it can’t be patented. Now they are trying to say it needs to be studied when it’s been studied heavily worldwide. Hemp and interest free constitutionally sound US currency are kryptonite to the bankers…
If Trump lifts the hemp prohibition and prints constitutionally sound US currency, done, mission complete. He’ll need to put that in writing before I vote for him, of course. Contracts are good business, good government.
You been smoking rope? Your wandering thoughts lead to no real conclusion so it is not surprising that you end by saying you are voting for Trump. That makes as much sense as anything else you said.
” 422 IRS backup computer tapes containing up to 24,000 of Lerner’s emails were destroyed, an incident the IRS claims was an accident”, and the cow jumped over the moon too. The entire Obama government is so corrupt from the SCOTUS to the Dog Catchers (FBI) that nothing can be trusted or depended on.
Taking down the bad is a start- but who directed him to go after conservatives is the key! Also what about the staff who continues to abuse people such as conservatives? What about data that was purged or deleted- those people should be arrested and forfeit all their pensions to be given to victims.
Unless people who commit crimes are arrested and lose assets and any possibility of any future govt job, we will have more of the same.
Also taking down this man still doesn’t say where the orders came from- so that person is still running free. Have to get them all!
Also: what others dont understand is when the bad people exhaust the abuse on concervatives, next “they” are in line for the same abuses. So the rule is the same for all. Do your job and dont single out people you disagree with because eventually you’ll be the next target- evil doesnt stop but it can be controlled.
Impeach him now. It will make him unable to reap benefits upon leaving and also it prevents any pardons by his enabler Barack Obama, the king of the “Cover-up Society”. Do not stop there. Go after the Attorney General Eric Holder for his cover-up of “Operation Fast and Furious”, and Hillary Clinton for the cover-up of Benghazi. Do you see the common denominator; Barack Obama. If he does not have enough high crimes and misdemeanors to impeach, then no President in the Future will face impeachment.
IN the Cases of KOSKINEN… lERNER… HOLDER REID and Obama……BRING BACK THE FIRING SQUADS…
TAKE HIM DOWN AND THE IRS. IF THEY CANT WORK CONCRETE ON THE TRUMP WALL. THEY ARE FIRED.
Wow, 422 backup computer takes “accidently” destroyed? Well, accidents do Occasionally happen, but Not in this case!
The IRS chief should have immediately been fired, but then, of course this is a Democrat administration. The majority of Democrat appointees can barely walk and chew gum at the same time.
BTW, isn’t it about time for another shake up of the Civil Service system? 1. There is no reason that civil servants (few of which are all that “Civil” to the folks that have to pay their wages by our confiscatory tax system) should need any union whatsoever. 2. It should Never take an act of Congress to fire Any civil servant for cause, whether they reached 3 year “permanent” status. 3. Most of the ones we’ve read about in these scandals should have been given a transfer, much less a promotion, to any other job of “public trust” in our federal government. 4. Any civil servant or member of the Senior Executive Service where evidence of slight of hand has taken place to gain any monetary award should be allowed to retire with a pension and still also be allowed to keep the illegally obtained rewards of their acts (as has happened with quite a few VA administrators).
You writers are missing an important line in the original article: “The resolution voices the longtime hostility of many conservative groups and lawmakers toward the tax-collecting agency.” It makes no difference whether the guy did anything illegal (if he did, he would have been released, so he didn’t) all you care about is you don’t like the IRS. Tough! it’s the law you name-dropping nabobs of negativism (Thanks for that, Spiro).
He shoud be in prison in AZ wearing pink uniforms and under ware and eating what our troops eat. This should go for all prison and save a lot of money .
When I was working for a bank as a collector on credit cards making them a fortune they offered me a .03 cent raise a week. I told them what they could do with that. And I quit . I am tired of the exectives getting away with murder and crimes against AMERICAN and our Government does nothing. Iam for TRUMP all he WAy