IV 114TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 494 Impeaching John Andrew Koskinen, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, for high crimes and misdemeanors. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 27, 2015 Mr. CHAFFETZ (for himself, Mr. DESANTIS, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. DESJARLAIS, Mr. FARENTHOLD, Mr. WALBERG, Mr. JODY B. HICE of Georgia, Mr. PALMER, Mr. WALKER, Mr. MULVANEY, Mr. JORDAN, Mr. RUSSELL, Mr. CARTER of Georgia, Mr. GROTHMAN, Mrs. LUMMIS, Mr. HURD of Texas, Mr. AMASH, Mr. TURNER, and Mr. MASSIE) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Impeaching John Andrew Koskinen, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, for high crimes and misdemeanors. 1 Resolved, That John Andrew Koskinen, Commis- 2 sioner of the Internal Revenue Service, is impeached for 3 high crimes and misdemeanors and that the following arti4 cles of impeachment be exhibited to the Senate: 5 Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS 6 Representatives of the United States of America in the 7 name of itself and of the people of the United States of 8 America, against John Andrew Koskinen, Commissioner VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Oct 28, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 2 1 of the Internal Revenue Service, in maintenance and sup2 port of its impeachment against him for high crimes and 3 misdemeanors. 4 5 ARTICLE I John Andrew Koskinen, in his conduct while Com- 6 missioner of the Internal Revenue Service, engaged in a 7 pattern of conduct that is incompatible with his duties as 8 an Officer of the United States, as follows: 9 Commissioner Koskinen failed in his duty to respond 10 to lawfully issued congressional subpoenas. On August 2, 11 2013, the Committee on Oversight and Government Re12 form of the House of Representatives issued a subpoena 13 to Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew, the custodian of 14 Internal Revenue Service documents. That subpoena de15 manded, among other things, ‘‘[a]ll communications sent 16 or received by Lois Lerner, from January 1, 2009, to Au17 gust 2, 2013’’. On February 14, 2014, following the Sen18 ate’s confirmation of John Andrew Koskinen as Commis19 sioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the Committee on 20 Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Rep21 resentatives reissued the subpoena to him. 22 On March 4, 2014, Internal Revenue Service employ- emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS 23 ees in Martinsburg, West Virginia, magnetically erased 24 422 backup tapes, destroying as many as 24,000 of Lois 25 Lerner’s emails responsive to the subpoena. This action •HRES 494 IH VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Oct 28, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 3 1 impeded congressional investigations into the Internal 2 Revenue Service targeting of Americans based on their po3 litical affiliation. The American people may never know 4 the true culpability or extent of the Internal Revenue Serv5 ice targeting because of the destruction of evidence that 6 took place. 7 Wherefore, John Andrew Koskinen, by such conduct, 8 warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office. 9 10 ARTICLE II John Andrew Koskinen engaged in a pattern of de- 11 ception that demonstrates his unfitness to serve as Com12 missioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Commissioner 13 Koskinen made a series of false and misleading statements 14 to Congress in contravention of his oath to tell the truth. emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS 15 Those false statements included the following: 16 (1) On June 20, 2014, Commissioner Koskinen 17 testified that ‘‘since the start of this investigation, 18 every email has been preserved. Nothing has been 19 lost. Nothing has been destroyed.’’. 20 (2) On the same day, Commissioner Koskinen 21 testified that the Internal Revenue Service had ‘‘con- 22 firmed that backup tapes from 2011 no longer ex- 23 isted because they have been recycled, pursuant to 24 the Internal Revenue Service normal policy’’. He 25 went on to explain that ‘‘[c]onfirmed means that •HRES 494 IH VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Oct 28, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 4 1 somebody went back and looked and made sure that 2 in fact any backup tapes that had existed had been 3 recycled’’. 4 (3) On March 26, 2014, Commissioner 5 Koskinen was asked during a hearing before the 6 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of 7 the House of Representatives, ‘‘Sir, are you or are 8 you not going to provide this committee all of Lois 9 Lerner’s emails?’’. He answered, ‘‘Yes, we will do 10 that.’’. 11 Each of those statements was materially false. On March 12 4, 2014, Internal Revenue Service employees magnetically 13 erased 422 backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 14 of Lois Lerner’s emails. On February 2, 2014, senior In15 ternal Revenue Service officials discovered that Lois 16 Lerner’s computer hard drive had crashed, rendering hun17 dreds or thousands of her emails unrecoverable. Commis18 sioner Koskinen’s false statements impeded and confused 19 congressional investigations into the Internal Revenue 20 Service targeting of Americans based on their political af21 filiation. 22 Wherefore, John Andrew Koskinen, by such conduct, emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS 23 warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office. •HRES 494 IH VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Oct 28, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 5 1 2 ARTICLE III John Andrew Koskinen, throughout his tenure as 3 Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has acted 4 in a manner inconsistent with the trust and confidence 5 placed in him as an Officer of the United States, as fol6 lows: 7 During his confirmation hearing before the Senate 8 Committee on Finance, John Andrew Koskinen promised, 9 ‘‘[W]e will be transparent about any problems we run into; 10 and the public and certainly this committee will know 11 about those problems as soon as we do.’’. 12 Commissioner Koskinen repeatedly violated that 13 promise. As early as February 2014 and no later than 14 April 2014, he was aware that a substantial portion of 15 Lois Lerner’s emails could not be produced to Congress. 16 However, in a March 19, 2014, letter to Senator Wyden 17 of the Senate Committee on Finance, Commissioner 18 Koskinen said, ‘‘We are transmitting today additional in19 formation that we believe completes our production to 20 your committee and the House Ways and Means 21 [C]ommittee. . . . In light of these productions, I hope 22 that the investigations can be concluded in the very near emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS 23 future.’’. At the time he sent that letter, he knew that 24 the document production was not complete. •HRES 494 IH VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Oct 28, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 6 1 Commissioner Koskinen did not notify Congress of 2 any problem until June 13, 2014, when he included the 3 information on the fifth page of the third enclosure of a 4 letter to the Senate Committee on Finance. 5 Wherefore, John Andrew Koskinen, by such conduct, 6 warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office. 7 8 ARTICLE IV John Andrew Koskinen has failed to act with com- 9 petence and forthrightness in overseeing the investigation 10 into Internal Revenue Service targeting of Americans be11 cause of their political affiliations as follows: 12 Commissioner Koskinen stated in a hearing on June 13 20, 2014, that the Internal Revenue Service had ‘‘gone 14 to great lengths’’ to retrieve all of Lois Lerner’s emails. 15 Commissioner Koskinen’s actions contradicted the assur16 ances he gave to Congress. 17 The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administra- 18 tion found over 1,000 of Lois Lerner’s emails that the In19 ternal Revenue Service had failed to produce. Those dis20 coveries took only 15 days of investigation to uncover. The 21 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration 22 searched a number of available sources, including disaster emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS 23 backup tapes, Lois Lerner’s Blackberry, the email server, 24 backup tapes for the email server, and Lois Lerner’s tem25 porary replacement laptop. The Internal Revenue Service •HRES 494 IH VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Oct 28, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 7 1 failed to examine any of those sources in its own investiga2 tion. 3 Wherefore, John Andrew Koskinen, by such conduct, 4 warrants impeachment, trial, and removal from office. emcdonald on DSK67QTVN1PROD with BILLS Æ •HRES 494 IH VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:48 Oct 28, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494