Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz is calling upon President Barack Obama to fire John Koskinen from his post as chief of the Internal Revenue Service. Chaffetz accused Koskinen of obstructing justice by failing to tell the truth about emails related to the alleged targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan threatened to hold Koskinen in contempt of court, claiming the IRS failed to turn over the emails at the center of the controversy. Speaking to the media Thursday, Chaffetz said that the judge’s threat didn’t come as a surprise.
“We’re finding the same thing in the House of Representatives. On Monday, we held a press conference and said that we in the House of Representative might hold Mr. Koskinen in contempt as well,” Chaffetz said. “You have the judicial branch, a judge, threatening the same thing as the House of Representatives—we’re having the same experience.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is part of a separate investigation into the matter. Chaffetz said that he would wait to see what the committee finds.
“We’re very much looking forward to Senate finance. Sen. Orrin Hatch has been on top of this in the Senate. They are poised to introduce a report and hopefully that happens sooner than later,” he said. “We want to see what the Senate comes up with, as well; we sent a 30-page letter to the president. 51 members of Congress now are calling upon the IRS commissioner to be removed from that position. We want the president to fulfill what he promised, which is he said he was going to work hand-in-hand with Congress. That has not happened.”
The IRS was initially ordered to hand over the once-thought lost emails on July 1.
