House Impeachment Vote Delayed As IRS Commissioner Agrees To Testify

FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2016 file photo, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. A last-minute deal between conservatives and GOP leaders in the House has av... FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2016 file photo, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. A last-minute deal between conservatives and GOP leaders in the House has averted votes expected Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016 on a measure to impeach John Koskinen, the commissioner of the IRS. Instead, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will testify before Congress next week. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

House Republican leaders and conservative hardliners reached a deal on Wednesday to delay a vote on the House floor to impeach Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen, according to reports in the Washington Post and Politico.

GOP leaders and members of the Freedom Caucus agreed to push the impeachment vote planned for Thursday until after the November election with the assurance that Koskinen would testify before the House Judiciary Committee next week. The IRS commissioner had indicated in a Sept. 8 letter that he would be willing to testify before the panel, according to the Washington Post.

The hearing scheduled for next week is not an impeachment hearing, but will give Republicans the chance to quiz Koskinen.

The Freedom Caucus touted the agreement in a Wednesday statement, saying it will “give every American the opportunity to hear John Koskinen answer under oath why he misled Congress, allowed evidence pertinent to an investigation to be destroyed, and defied Congressional subpoenas and preservation orders,” according to the Washington Post.

“It will also remove any lingering excuses for those who have been hesitant to proceed with this course of action,” the statement continued, according to the Post.

The Freedom Caucus this week worked to force a vote on the House floor to impeach Koskinen, even though Republican leadership was wary of the impeachment effort’s partisan nature. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chair of the Judiciary Committee, has opposed impeaching Koskinen and the committee has not advanced impeachment proceedings, Politico noted.

Conservatives in the House say Koskinen misled members of Congress on the investigation into the scandal around the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

“John Andrew Koskinen engaged in a pattern of deception that demonstrates his unfitness to serve as a Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service,” Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), one of the members who has pushed to impeach Koskinen, said on the House floor Tuesday. “Commissioner Koskinen made a series of false and misleading statements to Congress in contravention of his oath to tell the truth.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. “give every American the opportunity to hear John Koskinen answer under oath why he misled Congress, allowed evidence pertinent to an investigation to be destroyed, and defied Congressional subpoenas and preservation orders,”

    For those who are confused about what “beg the question” means, this is a textbook example.

    Begging the question is a logical fallacy in which a conclusion is based on an assumption that is as much in need of proof as the conclusion or in which the conclusion is part of the premise on which the conclusion is based.
    But beg the question is just an inept translation of the Latin petitio principii and the “question” involved is not an interrogative, but refers to “the matter at hand”. It would be better expressed by “assuming the initial point” or “assuming the basis”. The original meaning is “to treat an idea as if it were true or proved when it is not”.

    </pedantry>

  2. Maybe he’ll accidentally post Trump’s tax records and then apologise for the mistake!

  3. Seems to me a timeline of events is needed. When did John Koskinen become IRS Commissioner, when did Lois Lerner’s laptop malfunction, when did all these conservative groups apply for tax exemption, when did they not receive their tax exemption, but most importantly how much educational activities did these conservative groups perform?

  4. Avatar for jsfox jsfox says:

    Just for the record not a single conservative group was turned down. IN fact the only group turned down was a liberal group. They are whining about it because the IRS took too long and kept asking questions. Poor babies.

  5. …and this is how the GOPper HOUSE governs…threaten a BS vote that has nothing to do with reality, get the result no matter how, take it as a win and plan your next ‘threat’. Brownshirts, all of t hem!

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

13 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for paulw Avatar for jsfox Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for sysprog Avatar for leftflank Avatar for humpback Avatar for fargo116 Avatar for becca656 Avatar for boscobrown Avatar for randyabraham Avatar for frankly_my_dear Avatar for psyclone Avatar for lastroth Avatar for bardi Avatar for reggid Avatar for lubins

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: