WASHINGTON (AP) – IRS chief John Koskinen is defending himself against an election-season impeachment effort in a face-to-face confrontation with the Republican-run House Judiciary Committee.
Koskinen was scheduled to testify Wednesday on the drive by hard-line conservatives, who say he obstructed congressional investigations of IRS treatment of tea party organizations. Besides solid opposition from Democrats, the push has divided Republicans, won no backing from GOP leaders and has no chance of garnering the votes Congress would need to oust him.
In prepared testimony released late Tuesday, Koskinen said he’s been truthful and provided all the documents he could to investigators. He said impeaching him would be “improper.”
But without being specific, he conceded: “The truth is that we did not succeed in preserving all of the information requested and some of my testimony later proved mistaken. I regret both of those failings.”
Documents his lawyers released last week noted that he told lawmakers in June 2014 that no emails had been destroyed since congressional investigations began. One year later, Koskinen learned that backup tapes containing numerous emails had been erased by IRS workers in March of 2014.