Koskinen will testify next week before House panel

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will testify at a House Judiciary Committee hearing next week, according to a letter sent to Capitol Hill by his private lawyers on Friday.

Legal representatives for Koskinen, who is under fire by conservatives in Congress, sent a letter to the House panel expressing concern that the hearing could turn into an impeachment proceeding and lead to a House floor vote next week.

{mosads}“We are concerned, however, that some may believe that Commissioner Koskinen’s voluntary appearance at this hearing is an appropriate substitute for regular order and the traditional approach to addressing impeachment proceedings,” the lawyers wrote in the letter sent to Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and panel ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.), as well as House leaders.

The House postponed an impeachment vote on Thursday in an agreement between Goodlatte and the conservative House Freedom Caucus in favor of a Wednesday hearing, likely pushing any impeachment vote off until after the November elections.

Freedom Caucus members want Koskinen impeached because they argue he hindered congressional investigations into the IRS’s treatment of applications submitted by conservative groups requesting tax-exempt status before he arrived at the agency in 2013. 

Several are calling for a vote next week.

Still, impeaching Koskinen is a tall order for Congress.

If the House Judiciary Committee decides to move forward with impeachment proceedings, the Friday letter calls on the committee to afford Koskinen access to the full process to make opening and closing statements, cross-examine witnesses as well as present and examine evidence procured by the panel. 

“Testimony under oath from a single witness — before he has even been allowed to see any evidence against him and with no right to present corroborating evidence to address false or mistaken allegations — is no substitute,” the letter said. 

“Indeed a process of testimony following immediately by a floor vote, with no established standards, validated evidence for findings in fact would be more akin to a foreign show trial than the solemn process contemplated by the framers and congressional leaders, including members of this committee,” they wrote.

The letter also calls on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to release transcripts of all interviews about the matter.

“We understand these transcripts to be among the primary materials serving as a basis for a number of the allegations against Commissioner Koskinen,” the lawyers wrote.

They said access to the transcripts would enable the commissioner to provide more helpful information at next week’s hearing while acknowledging that time is short to fulfill the request. 

“They are also necessary to answer basic questions about the scope and depth of the investigation, such as what witnesses were interviewed, what questions were asked, what leads were followed and whether all relevant information was disclosed,” the letter said.