IRS Head Could Face Impeachment

The House Freedom Caucus is on a mission to impeach the IRS Commissioner.

Conservatives say John Koskinen hindered the attempt by Congress to investigate the agency for tough evaluations of Tea Party groups that wanted tax exemptions several years ago, according to FoxNews.com.

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., is a sponsor of the push to impeach Koskinen. The House could vote by the end of the week on an impeachment resolution.

"For years the IRS has abused its power to target people based on their political views," Fleming said in a statement. "Commissioner John Koskinen not only did nothing about it, but continued the trend of deception by deliberately keeping Congress and the American people in the dark."

"To date no one has been held accountable and no one will unless we move forward with a resolution to require a vote on his impeachment," he continued.

However, not all Republican leaders are embracing the move to impeach Koskinen, which does not have a good chance of happening, FoxNews.com reports. 

Some Republicans claim voting for an impeachment two months before elections could annoy voters. Others said a full House Judiciary Committee investigation into Koskinen should be launched first.

Republicans plan to discuss the issue behind closed doors Thursday.

The impeachment drive originates from the IRS admitting in 2013 that it singled out Tea Party groups who wanted tax exemptions for intense scrutiny for several years. Many Republicans have thought politics were behind the agency's actions, although investigators never discovered evidence to support that, the network reported.

House Republicans claim Koskinen impeded their investigation into the IRS by not handing over all emails subpoenaed by Congress, lying about the agency's elimination of emails and not working hard to retrieve the lost material, FoxNews.com says.

Koskinen and his Democratic allies say he is innocent and that he gave Congress all the information he had.

"The impeachment resolution is riddled with factual errors and omissions and is based on flawed characterizations of law and events," stated background papers released by Koskinen's personal lawyers.

To impeach a federal official, a simple majority vote is needed in the House. If that happens, a trial is held in the Senate, and a two-thirds majority vote is required there to find an official guilty and dismiss that leader from office.