[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 139 (Wednesday, September 14, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H5495-H5498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMPEACHING JOHN KOSKINEN
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. MacArthur). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) for 30 minutes.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, John Koskinen should no longer hold office.
John Koskinen should no longer be the Commissioner of the Internal
Revenue Service. Tonight I am joined by some of my colleagues to talk
about why that should happen, why he should be removed from office.
If you remember what took place here, the Internal Revenue Service
targeted our fellow citizens for their political beliefs. They did it,
and they got caught. Maybe most importantly tonight, thinking about the
current Commissioner, the targeting continues.
Now, you don't have to take my word for it. You can take what the
United States Appellate Court for the District of Columbia stated. This
is a decision from August 5, 2016, last month, from the opinion.
The IRS has admitted to the inspector general, to the District Court,
and to us--the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia--that applications for exemption by some of the plaintiffs
have never to this day been processed. They are still targeting
conservative groups.
They say it again right here:
It is absurd to suggest that the effect of the IRS'
unlawful conduct, which delayed the processing of plaintiffs'
applications, has been eradicated when two of the plaintiffs'
applications remain pending.
So here is the takeaway: they are still doing it.
Here is the standard for removing someone from office: gross
negligence, breach of public trust, dereliction of duty.
Mr. Koskinen has certainly had those things take place under his
tenure at the Internal Revenue Service.
Here are the facts. February 2014, John Koskinen's chief counsel is
on notice that there are problems with Lois Lerner's hard drive and
missing emails from during the time of the initial targeting. They wait
4 months before they tell Congress and, therefore, the American people.
During that 4 months, they learn in February: Oh, we have got missing
emails, problems with Lois Lerner's hard drive, an essential figure in
this scandal.
They wait until June before they tell Congress and the American
people.
During that 4-month timeframe, 422 backup tapes are destroyed. Most
importantly, they are destroyed with three orders to preserve all
documents, and two subpoenas to get those documents are in place. Now,
think about
[[Page H5496]]
that. You have got missing emails, the backup tapes that contain those
missing emails are destroyed during the 4 months you are trying to
figure out and 4 months before you tell Congress, and those 422 backup
tapes contain potentially 24,000 emails.
That is why he should no longer hold office. That is why it is
important that we take this vote at some point and remove him from
office. So you have got the standard, which he certainly meets based on
that fact pattern; and you have got the court, which just told us last
month the targeting continues.
The last thing I will say before turning to my colleagues: No private
citizen could get away with that same scenario. If any one of us, any
one of the three-quarters of a million people we all get to represent,
any of those folks back in the Fourth District of Ohio, which I have
the privilege of serving, if any one of those folks are audited by the
IRS and they discover that they are missing documents that are critical
to that audit and critical to what the IRS is looking for and they wait
4 months to tell the IRS that they are missing those documents, and
during that time the backup disk or the backup tape that contains those
missing documents somehow gets destroyed, what is going to happen to
them?
Well, they are definitely getting fined and they are probably going
to jail. But somehow when it happens to John Koskinen, the Commissioner
of the IRS, it is okay. It is not okay. It is not okay in this country.
This is what frosts so many Americans today. There are now two
standards in this country. One for we, the people, and a different one
for the politically connected. One for us regular folks and a different
one if your name is Lerner, Koskinen or Clinton. That is not supposed
to be how it works in this country, not in the greatest Nation ever,
where we are all supposed to be treated equally under the law.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Fleming),
my good friend.
Mr. FLEMING. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for having this
Special Order tonight.
My good friend, Congressman Jordan has laid out the facts of this
case. There are many other detailed facts that we don't have time to
get into. But just to give you an example of what my constituents are
saying to me, they are over-the-top angry at what Congressman Jordan
was talking about, and that is that there seems to be two standards in
America. There is one standard for the elite, there is one standard for
the high-up officials in Washington, and then there is a standard for
everyone else. We see this play out all the time.
But there are some very notable groups and people who support our
effort to begin the impeachment of John Koskinen, head of the IRS. I
will just give you some examples.
The National Review's editorial board:
A weaponized IRS put to partisan political ends constitutes
an unbearable assault on American democracy and undermines
the very institutions of government itself.
The Wall Street Journal, their editorial board:
The U.S. attorney has refused to honor Congress' contempt
charge against Ms. Lerner for refusing to testify. The
Justice Department has closed its investigations into the IRS
targeting without prosecutions, and the press corps winks at
abuses of power when conservatives are the targets.
That is precisely the point. It appears that the media--the liberal
media, which most media is nationally, seems to be agreeing with this.
In fact, I have had a number of media outlets out there who ask me: Why
would you want to impeach the head of the IRS? What is wrong with him?
Yet, you heard how we learned how Mr. Koskinen deceived Congress,
refused to respond to subpoenas, evidence was destroyed in his tenure.
So either he did it or someone did it while under his authority, and
then again deceived Congress about that as well. So it is very clear
there has been wrongdoing.
While Mr. Koskinen has come to the Hill here to talk to Members--but
he wants to do it offline and without being sworn in--he has not shown
any interest in doing it under oath.
The New York Post editorial board:
If you responded to an IRS audit the way Koskinen's IRS has
behaved, you'd be looking at huge penalties and maybe prison
time.
George Will, a noted conservative:
Congress should impeach the IRS Commissioner or risk
becoming obsolete.
Red State:
Why the impeachment of the IRS Commissioner is a sign that
Congress might actually work?
The American people have given up on Congress. Congress is the
legislative branch, which is a co-equal branch of government, and it
should be a check on the executive branch, and the judicial branch, for
that matter. Yet, Congress has shriveled up and atrophied so much. The
American people have given up on Congress ever doing anything about
corruption at high levels of our government.
And then Americans for Tax Reform:
Why Congress should impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
Since then, Koskinen has failed to reform the IRS with the
agency becoming increasingly politicized. Under Koskinen, the
agency destroyed several sources of Lois Lerner's emails
while he gave numerous false statements to Congress under
oath.
So it is very clear that very notable people, patriots, and people of
stature, people who are well-respected in America agree with the House
Freedom Caucus that we should move forward.
Finally, there has been polling on this matter. Freedom Works, for
instance, has commissioned a poll. Very clearly the American people say
by as much as a 66 percent net positive over negative that John
Koskinen should lose his job. So I think it is very clear.
I would just say that we are not sure what votes that we are going to
have tomorrow on this subject, but any vote short of impeachment of the
IRS Commissioner would be a vote against impeachment and would be a
vote against showing Mr. Koskinen the door and getting someone who will
do right by our leadership in the Internal Revenue Service, a very
important agency, and one that has been so much abused--or, actually,
victims. Americans have been abused--through its institution.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his hard work on
this issue and for bringing the motion forward to get this issue in
front of Congress.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar).
Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan).
Under the Obama administration, the IRS has consistently proven that
it cannot be trusted to serve the best interests of the American
people. Unelected bureaucrats like Lois Lerner and John Koskinen have
weaponized the agency and used it as a tool to blatantly target
innocent Americans simply for having different political beliefs.
Rather than cleaning house and restoring the trust of the American
people, the IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has continued the pattern of
criminal behavior and lawlessness within the IRS. On Koskinen's watch,
more than 24,000 emails and 420 backup tapes providing critical
evidence were completely erased.
Koskinen failed to comply with a congressional subpoena, failed to
testify truthfully in front of Congress four different times while
under oath, and is now the ringleader for the cover-up of the targeting
of innocent Americans by this rogue agency.
Our Founding Fathers specifically empowered the House of
Representatives with the authority to hold the executive branch in
check when it violates the trust of the American people and, more
importantly, when it violates the law.
The only way we can change the climate of corruption in Washington,
D.C., is to make an example of bureaucratic lawlessness. And we can
start right now by removing John Koskinen from his job.
Just you watch, if the House of Representatives takes action to fire
John Koskinen, I guarantee you that the rest of the Obama
administration and future administrations to come will get that
message.
It is beyond outrageous that not a single IRS employee has been
brought to justice for targeting innocent Americans. The House has an
obligation to pursue all constitutional options on the table to remove
John Koskinen, including impeachment.
Koskinen and accountability are within our reach, and my colleagues
and I will not yield in our efforts to hold this lawless agency
accountable until we get it done.
[[Page H5497]]
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks).
Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, Commissioner John Koskinen took over the Internal
Revenue Service in the wake of the IRS conservative targeting scandal
ostensibly to reform the agency internally. Instead, he continued his
predecessor's legacy of stonewalling justice.
After Lois Lerner, Director of the IRS' Tax Exempt Organizations
Unit, invoked the Fifth Amendment when she appeared before Congress,
the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena for
IRS documents, including all of Lois Lerner's emails.
The IRS' Chief Technology Officer also issued a preservation order
instructing employees not to destroy any emails, backup tapes, or
anything relevant to the investigation. But, Mr. Speaker, despite a
congressional subpoena and a do-not-destroy order, the IRS inspector
general found that the agency had erased 422 backup tapes containing as
many as 24,000 emails. All the while, Commissioner John Koskinen
knowingly and deliberately kept Congress in the dark.
{time} 2000
Commissioner Koskinen was clearly aware that the emails were lost,
but he knowingly and deliberately withheld that information from
Congress for 4 months and stonewalled the entire investigation.
Mr. Koskinen testified under oath four times before Congress during
that 4-month period, saying he would turn over all of Lerner's emails,
making no mention of the fact that the bulk of them had been ``lost.''
Mr. Koskinen provided false testimony and swore under oath that the
information on the bulk of the backup tapes was unrecoverable. The
inspector general found that approximately 700 of those emails had not,
in fact, been erased and were, in fact, recoverable.
Mr. Speaker, John Koskinen then failed to protect citizens against
the same type of future discrimination. A General Accounting Office
report found no significant measures had been implemented under Mr.
Koskinen's watch to ensure that civil servants at the IRS do not
continue in the future to unlawfully target Americans based on their
political or religious views.
Mr. Speaker, this entire matter is absolutely counter to everything a
Republic like ours was meant to be. In a constitutional Republic like
the United States of America, we are fundamentally predicated on the
rule of law; and there are very few things that break faith with
America and the American people or that undermine their trust in their
government more than witnessing those who are given the sacred
responsibility to enforce tax collection equally and according to the
law using the Federal Government's power of taxation unlawfully to
economically destroy and deliberately oppress American citizens based
on their religious or political views.
Such a tyrannical abuse of power and the betrayal of their sworn oath
to the United States Constitution by Commissioner John Koskinen and
Barack Obama will be writ large in their shameful legacy because it is
something that goes to the very heart of the rule of law in this
Republic and that so many lying out in Arlington National Cemetery died
to preserve.
Mr. Speaker, the United States Congress has a duty to impeach
Commissioner John Koskinen. The impeachment power is a political check
that, as Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 65 of 1788, protects
the public against abuse or violation of public trust. And Commissioner
John Koskinen, appointed by Barack Obama, has unequivocally violated
public trust.
A taxpayer would never get away with treating an IRS audit the way
the IRS officials have treated this congressional investigation; and
the Congress of the United States owes it to the American people, to
future generations, and to our sworn oath to the Constitution to hold
the perpetrators of this tyrannical abuse of power accountable and to
make sure that this never happens again.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for all his hard work.
I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Kansas (Mr.
Huelskamp), another hardworking Member.
Mr. HUELSKAMP. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here tonight and
tomorrow.
This House will have a chance to redeem itself a bit, or at least
remain relevant for now. Hopefully, we will be voting on something of
great consequence for a change.
Tomorrow we in this body will be asked to vote for or against
removing the IRS Commissioner. Make no mistake, however. This is not
just a vote to remove one man from office. It is a vote for or against
the rule of law itself. It is a vote for or against maintaining our
system of internal checks and balances. It will be a vote for or
against accountability for public officials and transparency in our
government.
For months, myself and other House Freedom Caucus members have been
pushing for this accountability. Those who might oppose this measure
most likely believe they are doing the right thing by defending the
IRS. In fact, they are defending a toxic status quo in which our
Nation's most powerful agency, the IRS, can legitimately be used to
thwart one's political enemies. This is a status quo in which one party
gains power in one branch of government, then uses the resources of
that branch of government to depress the power of all other branches of
government. This is something we would expect to see in an emerging
democracy, not the greatest Republic in the history of man. Let's take
a look back at how this all came about.
During President Obama's reelection campaign, the IRS systemically
prolonged consideration of applications for nonprofit status from
hundreds of conservative organizations--in some cases, as we heard this
evening, indefinitely. Many of those organizations were never able to
recover from this denial; others were effectively neutralized for the
duration of the 2012 election. This, of course, is a matter of fact and
not of opinion. Eventually, the discriminatory practice was exposed,
and Mrs. Lerner was removed from her position--although, I might note,
she retained her full retirement pension from taxpayers.
John Koskinen was imported as Commissioner to sort the mess out.
Then, as the President promised, to restore our faith in the Federal
Government, he would act in the best interest of all of us and not
abuse his power ever again.
But after Lerner refused to testify before Congress, the IRS casually
mentioned that some of her emails had gone missing, despite the
subpoenas and orders to preserve them--again, casually mentioned. In
fact, we found out later, the IRS had erased 422 backup tapes
containing as many as 24,000 emails.
Now, think about that. If every email was one single page and you
stack those all up, that would be 8 feet worth of erased emails.
When the Commissioner told Congress under oath that many emails had
been accidentally destroyed, he was lying. And when the Commissioner
told Congress under oath that his agency would provide investigators
with all of Mrs. Lerner's remaining emails, he was lying. And when he
told Congress under oath that the IRS would fully comply with any FOIA
request and otherwise assist our investigation into the practice of
unfairly targeting organizations for their First Amendment beliefs, he
was lying. And then when he and his boss, the President of the United
States, told the American people, under the sacred trust vested in all
public officials, that he would reform the IRS, make it more
transparent and less hostile to families, faith organizations, and
small businesses, he was not telling the truth.
The Commissioner blatantly lied under oath on multiple occasions
because he thought he could get away with it. Just like so many other
administration officials, the Commissioner believed he was above the
law and beyond reproach.
Tomorrow we have a chance to resoundingly prove Mr. Koskinen's
audacious assumptions wrong. These Articles of Impeachment--four for
each lie he told--represent the negative consequences that the average
American would face if he lied under oath.
[[Page H5498]]
Some have called this effort petty. There are even some who believe
there are other officials more deserving of removal. Perhaps they are
right. However, in this case, we have someone whose violations of the
law and the public trust cannot be disputed. And I would hope, in light
of the indisputable evidence, this body could perhaps move beyond the
partisan divisions so that justice can be served. I encourage my fellow
Members to do the right thing and vote for accountability, vote for the
rule of law, and vote for a government that has checks on its own
power.
I thank the Congressman from Ohio for his leadership. He is a true
friend. This is a very serious issue. This is not a political issue.
This is an issue of principle and rule of law for our government.
Mr. JORDAN. I thank the gentleman for his comments, which are right
on target.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert).
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. I thank the gentleman from Ohio.
Mr. Speaker, I actually wanted to touch on something that is a little
bit different.
Look, we have all seen the documents. We have all heard the argument,
even this evening, on the bad acts. Now I want to walk you through why
we must do this. And I understand for a lot of our brothers and sisters
in this body, this is uncomfortable. This is something that hasn't been
done in a very long time. So let me walk through sort of a line of
logic, because you can't be a Member of Congress and go home and do
townhalls and talk to reporters and say, ``I am going to defend the
Constitution,'' ``I am going to defend our Article I authority,'' and
then not stand up and defend it. So let's actually do sort of a linear
line of logic here.
If tomorrow one of you became a CEO, 15 years ago this body passed
something called Sarbanes-Oxley, which basically said, if you are in
the leadership and someone commits bad acts in your organization, you
accept the responsibility because you accepted that position of
leadership. These are the things we require from the real world outside
this body.
Has anyone here ever been a real estate broker, had a securities
license, other types? If bad acts happen underneath your license, what
happens? You lose your license. You are removed from that position. But
somehow these rules, this concept of responsibility that this very body
has put out on the rest of the country, the rest of the private sector,
is not willing--or is uncomfortable--to demand the very same status of
responsibility, the very same status of ethics that we require from a
real estate broker, from corporate executives. We are not going to
require it from the head of one of the most powerful bureaucracies in
this Nation?
And this is to all my brothers and sisters in the body. I accept it
is uncomfortable doing something you have not done before. That does
not mean it isn't the right thing to do.
You have heard the argument made. The facts are crisp and clear. Now
it is time to make that decision. Are you willing to defend the Article
I position that this body holds in the Constitution? Are you willing to
defend the Constitution? Or are you willing to let our representation
of the American people continue to be trampled on by this
administration?
Mr. Jordan, thank you for letting me have the mike.
Mr. JORDAN. I thank the gentleman for his good remarks.
I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry.)
Mr. PERRY. I thank the gentleman from Ohio for his leadership,
bringing this to our attention, and giving us the time to talk about
it.
Mr. Speaker, on what we are talking about, we have heard all the
facts, so I don't want to belabor them. Numerous protective orders,
subpoenas--literally, a preservation order from his own organization,
his own agency--the IRS Commissioner just disregarded all that stuff
and did exactly what he wanted to do in contravention to what any of us
would do.
Two standards of justice is what we are talking about, whether it was
for Lois Lerner, whether it was for John Koskinen, or whether it was
for Hillary Clinton, two standards of justice: one for them, one for
the people who are connected; and one for all the rest of us, one for
the people out there in the real world.
I remember in my business, when we got a letter from the IRS, ``Oh,
provide something from 4 years ago,'' we would go to our accountant and
say, ``Well, we already turned this stuff in. We have submitted this
stuff.''
``Well, you have to save your records for 7 years, and you have got
to submit that, or you are going to be in trouble.''
I mean, when you see something from the IRS, your heart stops. Do you
think Lois Lerner's heart stopped?
Do you think if the police were looking at you or investigating you
that you would get to go to the judge without talking to the police and
say, ``Hey, I will tell you what happened here, but we don't need to
involve the police in that''? That is what happened here, folks. That
is what happened, Mr. Speaker.
Two standards of justice: one for all of us working people out there,
and one for the connected.
Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, the facts are very clear. It is
our duty, it is our requirement under the Constitution, to provide
justice. And Mr. Koskinen will have his day in court, his due process.
That is the impeachment process. That is where he can tell his story.
He will have his day. But the people who have been aggrieved by the
weaponization of this agency also must have their justice, and it has
been denied to this point.
Mr. Speaker, I call for the action that we are talking about.
Mr. JORDAN. I thank the gentleman. He is right on target.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the fine gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Davidson).
Mr. DAVIDSON. I thank the gentleman for the opportunity to address
this body. It is an honor to be here tonight, but it is a sad time to
be here talking on this topic.
Mr. Speaker, as the newest guy here, I am still figuring out a lot of
things. So maybe for anybody who is thinking about this from home, this
IRS scandal has been going on since 2010. The first evidence of
targeting was 6 years ago. A lot of people say: Why are you guys still
looking into this? Why has it taken so long to get to this? Congress
has looked into it since 2013. It has been here for a long time. And
what we see here is an act of frustration, of frustration with a system
that our own body is having a hard time working. A lot of us would like
to see this go through the Judiciary Committee, go through a different
standard process, but that process has continued to stall, delay, and
not happen.
{time} 2015
I think we owe it to the people who sent us here to do what we said
we would do, which is to support and defend our Constitution.
If this body can be ignored, if we can have people come and give
inaccurate testimony, if we can have subpoenas ignored, if we can have
evidence destroyed, then, as George Will wrote, we risk being
completely irrelevant.
This is the dilemma: this isn't just the IRS that has done this. This
is the email scandal from the State Department. I remember the shock of
the CNN anchor saying ``the BlackBerrys are destroyed.'' Fact check
that. You just can't believe that these kind of things are going on.
I serve on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee where orders
to report data breaches have occurred over and over, and inaccurate
testimony is given. Subpoenas are being ignored by Attorneys General
for evidence involving cases that are intended to stifle scientific
research.
When Congress is acting, the word is on the street: You can ignore
these requests. You don't have to respond to subpoenas. You can destroy
evidence, and you can always give inaccurate testimony. Nothing is
going to happen.
So it is time we do take action. I hope we consider a course that
keeps our IRS Commissioner accountable and also sets an example that,
when Congress takes action, it should be taken seriously.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________