WASHINGTON, DC - Today, all 32 Democratic Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House Committee on Ways and Means sent a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. in advance of a hearing tomorrow with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen.
The Democrats’ letter attaches new correspondence between Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings, Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin, and IRS Inspector General J. Russell George in which the Inspector General confirms that his investigators have identified no new evidence whatsoever over the past year that would cause them to change the conclusion in their 2015 report, which stated: “No evidence was uncovered that any IRS employees had been directed to destroy or hide information from Congress, the DOJ, or TIGTA."
The Democrats wrote:
“As you know, certain Republican Members of Congress have renewed their effort to impeach Commissioner Koskinen in recent weeks, and their core accusation is that Commissioner Koskinen ordered the destruction of documents to conceal them from congressional and law enforcement investigators.... The fundamental problem with this accusation is that there is no evidence to support it....
“We are certain that you agree that the Judiciary Committee is an esteemed body that should not be abused in an effort to promote unsubstantiated campaign ads. We urge all Members to consider the evidence that has been obtained and the conclusions that several previous investigations have made in this case after reviewing a much more substantial record."
Last week, Republican John Fleming reintroduced a resolution to impeach Commissioner Koskinen. He also made grave accusations against Commissioner Koskinen in a campaign ad in Louisiana as part of his bid for U.S. Senate, stating: “The head of the IRS ordered 24,000 emails erased before Congress could review them, making sure the American people will never know the real truth."
The Inspector General’s office investigated this accusation and found no evidence to support it, and PolitiFact has rated his claim as “false."
