‘FALSE STATEMENTS’? House GOP attempts to impeach IRS chief

“This action will demonstrate to the American people that the IRS is under fix, and signal that Executive Branch officials who violate the public trust will be held accountable”.

Jason Chaffetz, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair, has started the impeachment process by introducing a resolution against Koskinen.

Tuesday’s resolution comes after the Department of Justice announced recently that was closing the investigation into the incident.

“The IRS vigorously disputes the allegations in the resolution”, the agency said in an email to NBC News. This led to wide condemnation of the agency and triggered several investigations, including a criminal FBI probe ordered by then-US Attorney General Eric Holder.

“We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution”, the Justice Department said in a letter notifying members of Congress. Among the thickets Koskinen he had to navigate was the fallout of the disappearance of more than two years of Lerner’s emails.

The IRS erased 422 backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 of Lois Lerner’s emails – key pieces of evidence that were destroyed on Koskinen’s watch.

Conservatives have been clamoring for the White House to fire Koskinen, who was not at the IRS during the alleged targeting but has been in charge of the agency since December 2013.

Chaffetz was joined by 18 committee Republicans in sponsoring an impeachment resolution, which now goes to the House Judiciary Committee.

NBC News reported in May 2013 that requests for information about conservative groups’ tax exemption requests often bore the signatures of senior IRS officials – at least one of them that of Lerner herself. Commissioner Koskinen failed to locate and preserve IRS records in accordance with a congressional subpoena and an internal preservation order. He said the impeachment resolution was “ridiculous” and a waste of taxpayer money.

The IRS said Tuesday it did not have an immediate comment on the resolution.

Just hours earlier, Koskinen was blistered on the other side of Capitol Hill, at a Senate Finance Committee presided over by Chaffetz’s congressional colleague, Utah Sen.