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Paul L. Caron
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Thursday, September 22, 2016

The IRS Scandal, Day 1232

IRS Logo 2New York Times, I.R.S. Chief Calls Efforts to Oust Him ‘Improper’:

The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, John A. Koskinen, expressed regret Wednesday for management mistakes, but called the attempt by House Republicans to impeach him “improper,” warning that such threats would discourage people from government service. ...

He also rejected Republican calls for him to resign, but said he would leave office if the next president so wishes. Otherwise, Mr. Koskinen’s term ends in November 2017. ...

At the Judiciary hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Koskinen again testified that the destruction of emails was inadvertent, and that his testimony in 2014 was based on what he thought was factual at the time. But he expressed regrets.

“The truth is, we did not succeed in preserving all of the information requested. And some of my testimony later proved mistaken,” Mr. Koskinen said. He added, “Even closer communication with Congress would have been advisable.” ...

Several Democrats denounced the hearings as a “sham,” and many changed the subject, instead asking Mr. Koskinen leading questions in reference to the Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.

While Mr. Koskinen said he could not talk about any specific taxpayer, he said the I.R.S. would not object to someone releasing tax returns under audit — as Mr. Trump has suggested the I.R.S. would do in refusing to release his own returns. Mr. Koskinen also described violations of tax law by charitable foundations in hypothetical terms, much like critics have alleged against Mr. Trump’s foundation.

“I appreciate your being here to clear some of that up,” said Representative Ted Deutch, Democrat of Florida.

Wall Street Journal, IRS Commissioner Pushes Back on Impeachment Attempt:

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen defended himself Wednesday against an impeachment attempt, labeling Republicans’ push to remove him from office as “improper” and warning that such a move would deter qualified people from serving in government.

House GOP hard-liners say impeachment is warranted because of the destruction of evidence sought by congressional investigators and because Mr. Koskinen failed to promptly inform Congress when he learned of the destruction. They also pressed him on the thoroughness of the agency’s search for records, which Congress demanded as part of inquiries into the IRS treatment of conservative groups under Mr. Koskinen’s predecessors.

“Your overall record is one of gross incompetence and extreme negligence,” Rep. Raul Labrador (R., Idaho) told Mr. Koskinen during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, urging the commissioner to resign.

Although he expressed regret for the agency’s shortcomings in protecting evidence and the fact that some of his statements later proved mistaken, Mr. Koskinen said he wouldn’t quit and said he hadn’t done anything to deserve impeachment.

“There is no evidence anywhere that I knew something I didn’t tell people about, that I falsified or misrepresented or lied,” he told reporters after the hearing, adding that it would set a “terrible precedent” if he were pressured out of office.

National Review: The IRS Commissioner Belongs in Prison, by Kevin D. Williamson:

I do not usually go out of my way to publicly disagree with National Review editorials, but I respectfully dissent from our piece calling for the impeachment of IRS commissioner John Koskinen.

He shouldn’t be impeached. He should be imprisoned.

When the feds couldn’t make ordinary criminal charges stick to the organized-crime syndicate that turned 1920s Chicago into a free-fire zone, they went after the boss, Al Capone, on tax charges. Under Barack Obama, the weaponized IRS has been transformed into a crime syndicate far worse than anything dreamt of by pinstriped Model-T gangsters — because Al Capone and Meyer Lansky did not have the full force of the federal government behind them. 

Koskinen was called before the House on Tuesday to explain a few things. One of those things is: Why is the IRS destroying evidence under subpoena in this case? Another was: Why is the IRS commissioner lying to Congress?

Koskinen is fluent in the mustelid dialect of Washington: “We did not succeed in preserving all of the information requested, and some of my testimony later proved mistaken.” There is a term for failing to “succeed in preserving information requested” during an official investigation: obstruction of justice.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/09/the-irs-scandal-day-1232xz.html

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Comments

warning that such threats would discourage people from government service

Why are we worried about attracting criminals like Koskinen into the government?

Posted by: wodun | Sep 23, 2016 12:46:49 AM