According to Rep. Jim Jordan (OH), Congress will impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
“It is something that has to be done,” said the Ohio Republican. “If we don’t hold some people accountable in the executive branch for the executive overreach we’ve seen in [the Obama] administration, then they’ll never get the message.”
It appears that Mr. Koskinen delayed FOIA requests and ignored court orders to turn over documents on the IRS scandal involving Lois Lerner.
Four hundred and twenty-two backup tapes of approximately 24,000 emails, including some of Ms. Lerner’s were destroyed.Given the fact Mr. Koskinen told the Congress the documentation would be preserved and that he would turn over all the documents, it appears he lied and quite possibly, perjured himself.
At a hearing in July, Judge Emmet Sullivan warned the IRS and the Justice Department that”excuses for not following His order were “indefensible, ridiculous and absurd and that “I will haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally in contempt.”
Federal officials can be impeached for:
- dereliction of duty
- failure to comply and for
- breach of trust
In Koskinen’s case this amouts to:
- failure to disclose loss of emails relevant to a congressional investigation
- non-compliance with an order to preserve evidence
- refusal to testify truthfully and according to indications given to the Congress
Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch,says some of the emails
“prove that the agency used donor lists to audit supporters of organizations engaged in First Amendment–protected lawful political speech.”
Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Jason Chaffetz, says the IRS has
“lied to Congress,” and “destroyed documents under subpoena.”
“He assured us he would comply with a congressional subpoena seeking Lois Lerner’s e-mails. Not only did he fail to keep that promise, we later learned he did not look in earnest for the information.”
During the trial in July, Mr Koskinen appears to have mis-characterized a GAO report that was critical of the IRS’s procedures for selecting exempt organizations for audits.The report indicates that IRS does track information about high net worth individuals. What may need to be investigated further is whether contributions to political committees are traced and whether or not the IRS then proceeds with audits of donors.
So Mr. Koskinen now sits in the hot seat and one can only hope that others involved in this, particularly former Commission Douglas Shulman may also find it difficult to evade responsibility. You may remember Mr. Shulman’s rather snarky response to an Oversight Committee member’s question as to why he made so many trips to the White House; his reply was “taking his kids to Easter Egg Hunts.” Sounds rather dishonest and quite willful at that. Oh, and let’s not forget IRS’s favourite phrase, “under penalty of perjury.”
Information about this story can also be found here, here, and here.
Hat tip to Sid
Everyone should watch the Sopranos and the late John Gandolfini’s portrayal of a sociopathic criminal. It helps in understanding Washington DC.
The IRS is sociopathic, as are the Federal governments in both the US and Canada.
Praise be to the Lord. I have watched on TV Koskinen giving testimony to some branch of Congress and he seemed to me to be utterly untrustworthy in his responses. I wouldn’t trust that man to go to the corner store to buy an ice cream.
The kind of news that brings a warm and fuzzy feeling. IBS has brought much news of IRS dysfunction over the years. Dysfunction that has punished many, but also left many more out of reach.
However this may not last forever. I do shudder to think of what might happen if, some day, the US decides to put the IRS in order. They may decide to double funding, improve training, and overhaul it completely so that it works perfectly, doesn’t lose track of anything, is capable of comparing data from different sources, etc. While that may have many welcome consequences, it could also be hell for those abroad who could no longer count on being forgotten or too small to bother with.
Which is why we must proceed with existing and future legal action.
This story also appeared in Investment Watch yesterday. See my comment here:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/media-and-blog-articles-open-for-comments-part-2-of-2/comment-page-42/#comments
This impeachment looks like a very long shot but maybe just the hint of it happening will force Koskinen to resign. To remind ourselves why this would be a very good thing, watch “A smug John Koskinen testifies before Congress June 20 2014”:
Bill Clinton was impeached.
@Petrol – they attempted to impeach Bill Clinton but were not successful.
Bloody autocorrect! That’s “Petros” not “Petrol”!
But perjury is legally required! Though the IRS never pointed me to IRB 2005-14, I found it by accident. The IRS must have known about it when told me orally that the preprinted jurat must be signed under penalty of perjury even when the signer knows that it’s false. It’s illegal to write an honest jurat. It’s illegal to call an estimate an estimate.
The IRS told Tax Court that it is appropriate to impose penalties for illegal honesty. The US Department of Justice told Court of Federal Claims that it is appropriate to refuse to refund overpayments due to illegal honesty in a declaration. Courts agreed.
Employees of both IRS and DOJ committed perjury by signing declarations under 28 USC 1746 even when the declarations were false. Courts don’t care.
Tax Court ruled that the IRS’s letter refusing to refund my 2006 withholding was a duplicate of the IRS’s letter denying my FOIA request when the IRS couldn’t find documents including one that the IRS had filed in court. If I were to testify about those letters, a court could jail me for contempt until I admit that the IRS’s two letters were duplicates of each other. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the IRS had rejected my refiled (with the required perjury) 2005 return, despite the IRS saying that IRS accepted it. I have to choose words very carefully to avoid contempt of court on that matter. THEREFORE I filed a motion for leave to tell the truth, and US District Court for the Central District of California denied my motion. Honesty is illegal; perjury is required by courts.
Does anyone know a way to get my cases transferred to Judge Emmet Sullivan? I need a maverick wacko like that in order to have a chance. Hmm, “Emmet”, does that mean what I think it means? How did he even get the job?
… “•non-compliance with an order to preserve evidence” … What about preemptive spoliation of evidence before they even persuade courts to deny motions for production of documents?
… “Four hundred and twenty-two backup tapes of approximately 24,000 emails, including some of Ms. Lerner’s were destroyed.” … Probably using my co-workers’ products. I’m in software, but my co-workers are in hardware. The IRS was in my employer’s customer list before I joined the company. Our machines were certified to sanitize hard drives that contained classified information to prepare the drives for disposal.
Bill Clinton was impeached but not convicted. Same as Andrew Johnson.
Cutting this snake’s head off won’t do much, but it would make a ghoulish costume for Halloween.
Is that what Hilary wanted to do? She could have asked Lorena Bobbit for help.
(But remember, Bill was impeached for perjury not for what his snake’s head did. Come to think of it, perjury was legal for him too.)
Who posted this whole diatribe?