They group has complained bitterly that House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has failed to support their investigation of Koskinen.
“This gets down to does the House even matter,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, a member of the Freedom Caucus. “Can a member of the administration lie with impunity to Congress and get away with it? Anybody who votes to table this motion or put it aside and do something else is simply saying Congress doesn’t matter.”
The GOP conference is scheduled to talk about the impeachment issue Thursday, but a vote is likely to come Thursday morning, said Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who introduced the measure Tuesday.
Jordan, R-Urbana, said Koskinen should be impeached because of “dereliction of duty, breaking the public trust and gross negligence.”
In particular, he is accused of not disclosing that the computer hard drive of Lois Lerner, the IRS employee who admitted that the IRS had targeted tea party and other right-wing groups, had crashed. Instead, Jordan said, Koskinen told Congress four months later. By that time, the backup tapes of those emails were destroyed.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy, said were Koskinen the head of Enron or Arthur Anderson, he would’ve gone to jail. “When the American people lose their confidence in top-level leadership, there has to be a remedy,” he said. “When Congress is ignored, when Congress is lied to, given inaccurate testimony, it’s not right,” he said. “If you can be ignored, you will be.”
Congress’ last impeachment was of President Bill Clinton in 1998, though he was not convicted by the Senate. (President Andrew Johnson was also impeached by the House and acquitted in the Senate, while President Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.) In all, the House has initiated impeachment proceedings more than 50 times, but fewer than a third have led to impeachments. Only eight — all federal judges — have been convicted and removed from office.
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