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IRS Commissioner Censured Over Tea Party Targeting

06-16-2016
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The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has voted to censure the IRS commissioner over the Tea Party targeting scandal.

Republican lawmakers say John Koskinen failed to provide information demanded by Congress and lied under oath.

The committee chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said Koskinen had made untrue statements to investigators, including testimony that the agency had turned over emails requested by Congress when it had not.

That happened during an investigation over the IRS targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups whose applications for tax-exempt status were subjected to intense scrutiny and delays.

Koskinen erroneously testified that the IRS had preserved emails relevant to the investigation when in reality hundreds of backup computer tapes had been destroyed.

Republicans said he did not do enough to preserve and turn over the emails by a former IRS official, Lois Lerner, that involved scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt donations.

The censure resolution under consideration calls for Koskinen's resignation and for his pension to be taken away, but the measure is not binding.
    
The House committee voted 23-15 to send the matter to the full House for a vote.

GOP leaders have displayed no enthusiasm for impeaching Koskinen, and any such move would be the responsibility of the House Judiciary Committee.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has not said whether he'd schedule a vote.

Even if the House were to pass an impeachment resolution, it would take a two-thirds vote by the Senate to convict Koskinen.

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