Democrats To Fend Off GOP Attacks At Rare Hearing To Impeach IRS Chief

House Democrats plan to make the case Tuesday that impeaching the IRS chief is a waste of time and would require a full-blown investigation that could not come close to wrapping up by the end of this session of Congress.

Outlining their strategy for what’s shaping up as a partisan hearing on four articles of impeachment Republicans have introduced against IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, Democrats say they’ll argue that the tax collector committed no misdeeds as Congress investigated a scandal that predated him.

“There’s a real sense that, looking at the same evidence found by all of these committees and [the inspector general], there was no personal wrongdoing on the commissioner’s watch,” a Democratic staff member close to the lawmakers’ thinking said.

The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee has been long sought by Republicans still aggrieved over the agency’s extra scrutiny of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. It will unfold without its main character: The tax collector himself.

Koskinen, accused of mishandling Republican requests for documents and flouting a subpoena for the emails of retired IRS official Lois Lerner, the central figure in the case, declined the committee’s request to testify.

His aides said he returned to Washington from a trip to China on May 13, the same day committee Republicans announced they would hold the first of two hearings to consider impeaching him. He did not have time to prepare for the hearing, his staff said.

But Democrats who have defended the IRS as their GOP colleagues have declared war on the agency, its budget and its employees in recent years say they’ll put up as many roadblocks as they can.

For one thing, they’ll argue that impeachment involves a lot of red tape: A new subcommittee to investigate. A separate staff. Cross-examination of witnesses. Lengthy debates. And Congress, which has just few days left on the legislative calendar before it breaks in July for the fall campaign, would not have time for all that.

And “with a few dozen working days left until recess, we’re doing this?” will also be a theme, the Democratic staffer said.

The committee is considering action it has not taken since 1876, the last time the House impeached an administration official who was not a president. (The man in the hot seat was Secretary of War William W. Belknap, who was accused of corruption. He resigned before the proceedings were over).

Democrats also will note that the Senate has shown no appetite to convict Koskinen if he were impeached. Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, made that clear last week.

The hearing puts Democrats in an odd role: The only two witnesses they will grill are GOP colleagues on the committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who also heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and has led the charge for impeachment and Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus.

Can they really raise their voices at the lawmakers they have to work with every day?

“It’s members,” the Democratic staffer said. “We’re not going to yell at other members.”

Koskinen was brought in by President Obama in December 2013, after the scandal erupted. The Republicans’ case against him revolves around testimony he gave to Congress several months later.

He told lawmakers he would turn over all of the emails they sought from Lerner, but some of her communications were later found to have been erased.

Democrats on the oversight committee put out a “Fact v. Fiction” document late Monday that refutes each of the four articles of impeachment. Among the rejoinders: Koskinen did not lie to Congress, and he was not aware that some of Lerner’s emails could not be recovered when he told lawmakers he would produce all of them.

The Justice Department closed its investigation of the case last fall, finding mismanagement but no criminal behavior.

House Republicans have been determined to take action, though. Chaffetz introduced a resolution last week to censure the tax collector in case impeachment does not have enough support.