House GOP leaders will hold impeachment hearings on IRS Commissioner John Koskinen next week, conservatives announced late Wednesday, just hours before they were poised to force an impeachment vote on the chamber floor.
The conservatives say Mr. Koskinen misled Congress and obstructed the investigation into tea party targeting, allowing hundreds of backup tapes containing Lois G. Lerner’s missing emails to be deleted even though they were under subpoena by Capitol Hill.
Republican leaders had balked at impeachment but faced with the prospect of losing an embarrassing vote Thursday, they agreed to hold hearings, giving Mr. Koskinen a chance to make his case — under oath — for why he should keep his job.
The conservatives said they’ll allow the process to play out, but if their party leaders try to pull a fast one along the way, they’ll go back to forcing an impeachment vote straight to the floor.
“We’ve pressured leadership to move forward with regular order on this issue. However, if regular order is not followed through with we still reserve the right to bring up a privileged resolution again in November and go directly to a vote,” said Rep. John Fleming, Louisiana Republican.
The impeachment hearing will be held Sept. 21 in the House Judiciary Committee.
Impeachment is rare and save for two presidents, only one other Executive Branch official — a Reconstruction Era War Department secretary — has been impeached.
Impeachment is equivalent to bringing formal charges against an officer, and takes only a majority vote in the House. A trial is then held in the Senate, and it takes a two-thirds vote on any article of impeachment to convict and remove an official from office.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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