Holding the IRS Accountable

Floor Speech

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Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for organizing this Special Order, but more importantly, for the fight that he has waged in holding the IRS accountable and for saying to the American taxpayer, the American people, when you have individuals running an agency with the power of the Internal Revenue Service, doing what was done under Commissioner Koskinen's watch, he, in fact, should be impeached.

Let's just walk back through the story. Remember how this started. We had conservative groups around the country saying, hey, we are being harassed by the IRS for filing to get tax-exempt status, something that used to be kind of a matter-of-fact thing; we are being harassed for doing so.

So the Congress of the United States called for the inspector general to do an investigation. The inspector general does his investigation. It takes a long time. It takes about a year. They do an investigation and they find, you know what, our very own tax collection agency is, in fact, targeting citizens for their political beliefs. They find it. They find targeting took place. The inspector general of Treasury tells the Treasury officials and tells the IRS what they have discovered, and they are going to file their report the following week.

In an unprecedented move, Lois Lerner, the Friday before the report is supposed to be made public the following week, Friday, May 10, 2013, Lois Lerner does what all kinds of people do when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. She wants to get ahead of this story, so at a staged event, bar association event, staged question, planted question from a friend, she gets asked about the targeting and the inspector general's investigation, and she does what all kinds of people do when they get caught. She lies. She flat out lies. She tries to blame good public servants in Cincinnati. She said this was all about Cincinnati.

We all know what the evidence pointed to. It was about Washington. It was about the folks right here in the Internal Revenue Service.

The report comes out the following week. On the following Monday, 2 days later, the President of the United States and the Attorney General say this is inexcusable, and they call for a criminal investigation.

In fact, it is so bad, the President fires the then-Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. They bring in an interim Commissioner. For a long time, we have hearings and a bunch of things happen. And, of course, one of the most noteworthy things is the very lady who was at the center of the storm, who lied when she first made this public, gets brought in front of the Congress.

And what did she do?

She takes the Fifth. So when you have the central figure exercising their Fifth Amendment right, not willing to testify in public and answer the people's representatives' questions, it sort of puts a premium on getting the documents and the communications that the IRS had relative to this issue.

And so a long investigation ensues. Both a criminal investigation and a congressional investigation. Mr. Koskinen is then brought in as the Commissioner who is going to clean it all up, clean up this agency with so much power over American people's lives. He is brought in.

And guess what happens?

Everything Congressman DeSantis just described. There are 422 backup tapes destroyed containing potentially 24,000 emails. Many of those emails most likely were Lois Lerner's emails that the American people and the Congress will never get a chance to see. They were destroyed, as Congressman DeSantis pointed out, with three preservation orders in place. One from the IRS and the Treasury themselves. Another preservation order by the Justice Department saying preserve all documents, preserve everything. So three preservation orders, two subpoenas in place, and the Commissioner, under his watch, 422 backup tapes are destroyed containing 24,000 emails.

What does Mr. Koskinen do when he learns about problems with these tapes and problems with Ms. Lerner's hard drive?

He waits 4 months--4 months--before he tells Congress. Again, raising the obvious question--if you are a taxpayer being audited and you realize, oops, I lost some documents or I destroyed something, and you wait 4 months to tell the IRS what you did, oh, my goodness, you are in huge trouble.

But Mr. Koskinen, he is the cleanup guy, he is the President's hand- picked person, he is brought in. He thinks it is just fine that there are all these problems that he knows about.

Now, he didn't just wait 4 months and then tell us. In that time, when he first learned there were problems, he testified in front of Congress several times and didn't tell us. And then the worst thing is he provided false testimony, which, again, my colleague from Florida has pointed out. He said: Look, everything is fine.

And then finally, think about all the duties this guy, the guy brought in to clean up the mess, think about all the duties he had. A duty to preserve all the documents, particularly in light of the fact the central figure has taken the Fifth. A duty to produce them when they are asked for by the Congress. A duty to disclose to us if he couldn't preserve and produce them. A duty to testify accurately. And then, finally, a duty to correct the record if, in fact, he testified and said something that wasn't accurate. Every single duty he had, he breached. Every single one.

Here is the final point I will make. And this is why--what Congressman DeSantis, what Congressman Hice, and what Congressman Lamborn are going to talk about is why this is so important, why this is so critical that this individual be brought in front of Congress. And, actually, we go through the articles of impeachment, and we exercise the right that the Constitution requires us to do of a situation of this magnitude.

Why it is so important is, remember the underlying offense. This is an agency with the power and influence that the IRS has systematically and for a sustained period of time targeting Americans' most cherished rights. You think about your First Amendment liberties: freedom of the press, freedom to petition your government, freedom to assemble, freedom to practice your faith, freedom of religion, practice your faith the way you think the good Lord wants you to. But under the First Amendment, your most fundamental liberty is your right to speak.

When the Founders put together the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and that First Amendment, when they were talking about your free speech rights, what they were mostly focused on was not just any old speech, any old talk, they were mostly focused on doing what we are doing right now, political speech, talking about politics, talking about government.

You have the right as an American citizen to speak out against your government and not be harassed for doing so. And yet, the IRS did just that. And that is why, Mr. Koskinen, that is why we filed these articles of impeachment and that is why we are asking that they move forward in the Committee on the Judiciary and we do what the American people sent us here to do.

I thank the gentleman from Florida who has done so much good work on this issue and a host of others.

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