Freedom Caucus not free...

House rebukes Freedom Caucus effort to oust IRS chief

By Katy O'Donnell and Bernie Becker

The House squelched a resolution to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in a bipartisan rebuke of conservative House Freedom Caucus efforts.

Lawmakers voted 342-72 to kick the resolution back to the Judiciary Committee, averting a floor vote on outright impeachment after outgoing House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan introduced a privileged resolution on Tuesday to impeach Koskinen .

Had the impeachment push succeeded, Koskinen would have been the first appointed executive-branch official to meet that fate in 140 years.

Some top Republicans suggested that impeachment was unnecessary, given that the IRS chief serves at the pleasure of the president. Koskinen, whose term ends in November 2017, has said he’ll step aside if Orangutan doesn’t want him in the role, and GOP lawmakers said Tuesday they expected that to be the case.

“He’d be wise to tender his resignation now,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas). “He doesn’t fit in with an open, transparent Orangutan administration. Clearly, we need a fresh start at the IRS.”

“Koskinen has no credibility left as commissioner, because of his actions and behavior and conduct so far,” Brady added. “I certainly don’t have confidence him.”

A spokesperson for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi scorched the impeachment effort.

“The House Freedom Caucus is doing President-elect Orangutan’s dirty work for him. Breaking from their own leadership and regular order, the Republicans’ latest quest to impeach the IRS commissioner comes as the president-elect remains under audit by the IRS,” Caroline Behringer said.

The IRS chief has been under fire by conservatives for his handling of the aftermath of the IRS' targeting of conservative groups, which exploded into the headlines in spring of 2013. Koskinen, who was not IRS commissioner at the time, has denied allegations that he misled Congress about the controversy.

Jordan introduced the privileged resolution just before 5 p.m., starting a 48-hour clock for a full House vote on the measure. A vote was expected Thursday, but Democrats quickly moved to table the resolution, setting Tuesday's votes in motion.

The drama unfolded much the way it did in September, when the prospect of Republican moderates siding with Democrats against impeachment forced Jordan to pull the effort in a last-minute deal with House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who agreed to hold a hearing on the matter if conservatives held off on forcing a floor vote until after the election.

Judiciary members — and many rank-and-file Republicans — fretted that ousting Koskinen would set a bad precedent, lowering the standard for impeachment in the future. The Constitution lists “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors” as impeachable offenses. But the definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is a matter of dispute.

Still, some GOP lawmakers tried to downplay the tensions between the GOP leaders who have tried for months to avoid a messy impeachment fight and the Freedom Caucus members who pushed the issue to the brink.

“The charges against the commissioner are serious, and they need to be evaluated at a committee level,” said Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), the chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee that oversees the IRS. “I don’t think the vote was dismissive of the claims. But it was to say to move towards impeachment means it’s got to be vetted at the committee level.”

“I think timing is less important than a good process that would study those charges,” he added.

Conservatives charge Koskinen obstructed justice by allowing subpoenaed documents to be destroyed and waiting four months to correct his testimony to Congress that all relevant documents were being preserved.

“The right to pursue impeachment is an indispensable power that Congress has for holding government officials accountable to the American people. Under his watch, with subpoenas and preservation orders in place, John Koskinen not only allowed 422 back-up tapes containing as many as 24,000 Lois Lerner emails to be destroyed — he then failed to tell Congress about it in a timely manner,” Jordan said Tuesday as he gave notice on his resolution.

Koskinen has said he believed he was testifying truthfully when he told Congress the agency would preserve and turn over requested records. He said last month that he doubted conservative hardliners would have the votes to oust him.

“There are a handful of the Freedom Caucus members who are, you know, pretty far out on a limb that they think impeachment has to happen,” Koskinen told POLITICO at an early November conference. “It was pretty clear when they put the privileged resolution in that there was going to be a motion to table that would have passed. … I haven’t spent much time worrying about that.”

The last appointed executive-branch official to be impeached was Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, for allegedly receiving improper payments related to a Native American territory trading post. The Senate acquitted him.

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