IV 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 828 

Impeaching John Andrew Koskinen, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue 

Service, for high crimes and misdemeanors. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 13, 2016 

Mr. FLEMING (for himself and Mr. HUELSKAMP) 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 

9 of the Internal Revenue Service, in maintenance and supVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:13 Jul 14, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR828.IH HR828

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1 port of its impeachment against him for high crimes and 

2 misdemeanors. 

3 ARTICLE I

4 John Andrew Koskinen, in his conduct while Com5 missioner of the Internal Revenue Service, engaged in a 

6 pattern of conduct that is incompatible with his duties as 

7 an Officer of the United States, as follows: 

8 Commissioner Koskinen failed in his duty to respond 

9 to lawfully issued congressional subpoenas. On August 2, 

10 2013, the Committee on Oversight and Government Re11 form of the House of Representatives issued a subpoena 

12 to Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew, the custodian of 

13 Internal Revenue Service documents. That subpoena de14 manded, among other things, ‘‘[a]ll communications sent 

15 or received by Lois Lerner, from January 1, 2009, to Au16 gust 2, 2013’’. On February 14, 2014, following the Sen17 ate’s confirmation of John Andrew Koskinen as Commis18 sioner of the Internal Revenue Service, the Committee on 

19 Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Rep20 resentatives reissued the subpoena to him. 

21 On March 4, 2014, Internal Revenue Service employ22 ees in Martinsburg, West Virginia, magnetically erased 

23 422 backup tapes, destroying as many as 24,000 of Lois 

24 Lerner’s emails responsive to the subpoena. This action 

25 impeded congressional investigations into the Internal 


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1 Revenue Service targeting of Americans based on their po2 litical affiliation. The American people may never know 

3 the true culpability or extent of the Internal Revenue Serv4 ice targeting because of the destruction of evidence that 

5 took place. 

6 Wherefore, John Andrew Koskinen, by such conduct, 

7 warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office. 

8 ARTICLE II

9 John Andrew Koskinen engaged in a pattern of de10 ception that demonstrates his unfitness to serve as Com11 missioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Commissioner 

12 Koskinen made a series of false and misleading statements 

13 to Congress in contravention of his oath to tell the truth. 

14 Those false statements included the following: 

15 (1) On June 20, 2014, Commissioner Koskinen 

16 testified that ‘‘since the start of this investigation, 

17 every email has been preserved. Nothing has been 

18 lost. Nothing has been destroyed.’’. 

19 (2) On June 23, 2014, Commissioner Koskinen 

20 testified that the Internal Revenue Service had ‘‘con21 firmed that backup tapes from 2011 no longer ex22 isted because they have been recycled, pursuant to 

23 the Internal Revenue Service normal policy’’. He 

24 went on to explain that ‘‘[c]onfirmed means that 

25 somebody went back and looked and made sure that 


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1 in fact any backup tapes that had existed had been 

2 recycled’’. 

3 (3) On March 26, 2014, Commissioner 

4 Koskinen was asked during a hearing before the 

5 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of 

6 the House of Representatives, ‘‘Sir, are you or are 

7 you not going to provide this committee all of Lois 

8 Lerner’s emails?’’. He answered, ‘‘Yes, we will do 

9 that.’’. 

10 Each of those statements was materially false. On March 

11 4, 2014, Internal Revenue Service employees magnetically 

12 erased 422 backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 

13 of Lois Lerner’s emails. On February 2, 2014, senior In14 ternal Revenue Service officials discovered that Lois 

15 Lerner’s computer hard drive had crashed, rendering hun16 dreds or thousands of her emails unrecoverable. Commis17 sioner Koskinen’s false statements impeded and confused 

18 congressional investigations into the Internal Revenue 

19 Service targeting of Americans based on their political af20 filiation. 

21 Wherefore, John Andrew Koskinen, by such conduct, 

22 warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office. 

23 ARTICLE III

24 John Andrew Koskinen, throughout his tenure as 

25 Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, has acted 


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1 in a manner inconsistent with the trust and confidence 

2 placed in him as an Officer of the United States, as fol3 lows: 

4 During his confirmation hearing before the Senate 

5 Committee on Finance, John Andrew Koskinen promised, 

6 ‘‘[W]e will be transparent about any problems we run into; 

7 and the public and certainly this committee will know 

8 about those problems as soon as we do.’’. 

9 Commissioner Koskinen repeatedly violated that 

10 promise. As early as February 2014 and no later than 

11 April 2014, he was aware that a substantial portion of 

12 Lois Lerner’s emails could not be produced to Congress. 

13 However, in a March 19, 2014, letter to Senator Wyden 

14 of the Senate Committee on Finance, Commissioner 

15 Koskinen said, ‘‘We are transmitting today additional in16 formation that we believe completes our production to 

17 your committee and the House Ways and Means 

18 [C]ommittee. . . . In light of these productions, I hope 

19 that the investigations can be concluded in the very near 

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

21 the document production was not complete. 

22 Commissioner Koskinen did not notify Congress of 

23 any problem until June 13, 2014, when he included the 

24 information on the fifth page of the third enclosure of a 

25 letter to the Senate Committee on Finance. 


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1 Wherefore, John Andrew Koskinen, by such conduct, 

2 warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office. 

3 ARTICLE IV

4 John Andrew Koskinen has failed to act with com5 petence and forthrightness in overseeing the investigation 

6 into Internal Revenue Service targeting of Americans be7 cause of their political affiliations as follows: 

8 Commissioner Koskinen stated in a hearing on June 

9 20, 2014, that the Internal Revenue Service had ‘‘gone 

10 to great lengths’’ to retrieve all of Lois Lerner’s emails. 

11 Commissioner Koskinen’s actions contradicted the assur12 ances he gave to Congress. 

13 The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administra14 tion found over 1,000 of Lois Lerner’s emails that the In15 ternal Revenue Service had failed to produce. Those dis16 coveries took only 15 days of investigation to uncover. The 

17 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration 

18 searched a number of available sources, including disaster 

19 backup tapes, Lois Lerner’s Blackberry, the email server, 

20 backup tapes for the email server, and Lois Lerner’s tem21 porary replacement laptop. The Internal Revenue Service 

22 failed to examine any of those sources in its own investiga23 tion. 


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1 Wherefore, John Andrew Koskinen, by such conduct, 

2 warrants impeachment, trial, and removal from office. 

Æ 


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