The IRS Conservative Targeting Scandal involved:
- Hundreds of conservative groups were targeted
- At least 5 pro-Israel groups
- Constitutional groups
- Groups that criticized Obama administration
- At least two pro-life groups
- An 83 year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor
- A 180 year-old Baptist paper
- A Texas voting-rights group
- A Hollywood conservative group was targeted and harassed
- Conservative activists and businesses
- At least one conservative Hispanic group
- IRS continued to target groups even after the scandal was exposed
- 10% of Tea Party donors were audited by the IRS
- And… 100% of the 501(c)(4) Groups Audited by IRS Were Conservative
IRS Commissioner John Koskinentestified before the House Oversight and Government Reform on March 26, 2014. Koskinen told Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) during the hearing that Lois Lerner’s emails were archived and it would take a long time to retrieve them.
In June 2014 the IRS told Congress Lois Lerner’s emails were lost in a computer crash.
There were audible gasps in the room when IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress that Lerner’s hard drive was tossed out. Koskinen testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the IRS conservative targeting scandal.
Via OutNumbered:
In October 2015 the Obama Department of Justice announced no one would be prosecuted in the IRS targeting scandal.
House Republicans introduced a measure to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in October 2015 for lying to Congress and for illegal targeting of conservative groups.
But on Wednesday House Republicans folded.
There will be no impeachment on IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
House Repubicans are too scared.
FOX News reported:
It all came down to three buttons. The question was which one House Republicans dreaded pressing the most: the green one, the red one or the amber one.
Tiny boxes sporting those colored buttons dot the House of Representatives chamber. When the House calls votes, lawmakers cluster around the machines, insert their electronic voting cards and punch one of the buttons. The process registers either a yea, nay or “present” vote. A corresponding “Y,” “N” or “P” then pops up next to the member’s surname on a gigantic tote board in the House chamber.
Until late Wednesday night, House members expected to make a decision on whether or not to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. They even could have cast a ballot to postpone or kill the impeachment effort. Most GOPers who aren’t part of the conservative House Freedom Caucus cringed at their voting options.
As it turns out, lawmakers won’t have to vote on Koskinen just yet. Thanks to some behind-the-scenes wrangling from Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the Freedom Caucus carved a deal with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to hold an impeachment hearing with Koskinen present next Wednesday.
Rep. John Fleming, R-La., authored the impeachment effort alongside Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan. House Republican leaders were cool to the impeachment idea. So Fleming and Huelskamp engineered four articles of impeachment and tucked them into a special resolution designed to bypass the House GOP brass. The maneuver would compel the House to vote up or down on impeaching Koskinen. Some Republicans considered options to kill the effort through parliamentary maneuvering.
Fleming reveled in the outcome.
“This never would have happened without our efforts to bring this issue to the forefront,” crowed Fleming. “However, if regular order is not followed through, we still reserve the right to bring up a privileged resolution again in November and go directly to a vote.”
That could happen later. Impeaching the IRS Commissioner is red meat for the GOP base. But for now, House Republican leaders dodged a conundrum which would have exposed fissures in the party immediately before an election.
