House Republicans launch effort to impeach IRS commissioner


The House Benghazi Committee may have gotten all the attention recently, but House Republicans want you to remember that they have more than one iron in the fire. On Tuesday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced that he and 18 Republican colleagues had filed a motion to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. The resolution, which accuses Koskinen of violating the public trust and misleading Congress about IRS targeting of conservative groups, will go next to the House Judiciary Committee.
Chaffetz and his committee Republicans filed their motion four days after the Justice Department closed its investigation into the IRS scandal — which involved scrutiny of mostly conservative and Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status — without filing criminal charges. Koskinen was appointed after the scandal broke, but Chaffetz accuses him of erasing backup tapes with emails from Lois Lerner, the central IRS figure targeted by Republicans. "Impeachment is the appropriate tool to restore public confidence in the IRS and to protect the institutional interests of Congress," Chaffetz said.
House Democrats opposed the impeachment resolution and called it politically motivated. There's no evidence that Koskinen defied Congress or misled the public, said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on Chaffetz's committee. The IRS has spent $20 million and 160,000 employee hours cooperating with investigations, including the "ridiculous" one by the House Oversight Committee, Cummings said, and "calling this resolution a 'stunt' or a 'joke' would be insulting to stunts and jokes." Impeachment of an agency head is a step above holding him or her in contempt, The Washington Post notes, calling it "highly unusual," perhaps last used against War Secretary William Belknap in 1876.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Sudoku hard: October 5, 2025
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoff
Speed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsion
Speed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot
-
Oregon sues to stop Trump military deployment
Speed Read The president wants to send the National Guard into Portland