
The House Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing over whether there is legal cause to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen over allegedly impeding a Congressional investigation into whether the service unfairly targeted conservative groups, according to
Bloomberg. There had been another scheduled hearing to discuss the matter in
May, but the commissioner declined to attend that one due to lack of time to prepare. The commissioner will be absent from this hearing as well, according to Bloomberg, as he is currently on vacation. He has, however, retained private lawyers at his own expense to defend him. Bloomberg said this was to save money for the increasingly cash-strapped agency.
Even if Congress agrees to go forward with impeachment, Bloomberg said it is unlikely to actually succeed, as the measure would also need to be improved by the Senate. Regardless, it would be the first time a presidential appointment had faced impeachment since 1876, according to Bloomberg, when Secretary of War under President Grant,
William Belknap, was impeached over his involvement in the
trader post scandal.
In addition to the possible impeachment, the House Oversight Committee recently
censured Koskinen as well. To date, the only cabinet-level official to receive Congressional censure has been
Augustus Hill Garland, attorney general during the first Grover Cleveland administration, who, in 1886, failed to provide documents regarding the firing of a U.S. attorney.