This week I joined House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and other members of the Committee to introduce a resolution to begin proceedings in the United States House of Representatives to impeach Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen due to his severe violations of public trust.
First, Commissioner Koskinen failed to comply with a subpoena resulting in destruction of key evidence. Under his watch, the IRS erased 422 backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 of Lois Lerner’s emails.
Next, Commissioner Koskinen lied to Congress during testimony when he claimed the IRS turned over all emails relevant to the congressional investigation, including all of Ms. Lerner’s emails. When the agency determined Ms. Lerner’s emails were missing, Commissioner Koskinen testified the emails were unrecoverable. These statements were false.
Finally, Commissioner Koskinen failed to notify Congress that Lois Lerner’s emails were missing in February 2014. By missing, I mean the IRS had destroyed the emails on March 4, 2014. The IRS did not notify Congress that the emails were missing until June 2014.It is time for new leadership at the IRS. The American people deserve to have confidence in the IRS. We can only do that and we can only move forward by having new leadership and impeachment is the appropriate tool to achieve this.
