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, Commis2 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 

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 


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1 of the Internal Revenue Service, in maintenance and sup2 port of its impeachment against him for high crimes and 

3 misdemeanors. 

4 ARTICLE I

5 John Andrew Koskinen, in his conduct while Com6 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 employ23 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 


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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 ARTICLE II

10 John Andrew Koskinen engaged in a pattern of de11 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. 

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 ‘‘con22 firmed that backup tapes from 2011 no longer ex23 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 


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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, 

23 warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office. 


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1 ARTICLE III

2 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 

23 future.’’. At the time he sent that letter, he knew that 

24 the document production was not complete. 


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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 ARTICLE IV

8 John Andrew Koskinen has failed to act with com9 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 Administra18 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 

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 


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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. 

Æ 


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