17224623735_89a0272713_z

House Oversight Republicans, led by Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) today called for President Obama to remove IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. Under Koskinen’s leadership, the agency has continually stonewalled the investigation into the Lois Lerner targeting scandal. Years after the scandal first broke, the agency has done its utmost to bury the truth. Taxpayers deserve a transparent and responsive government, but under Commissioner Koskinen the IRS has displayed unprecedented unaccountability.

Chairman Chaffetz vowed to explore all options to remove Commissioner Koskinen including impeachment and holding him in contempt of Congress. As Chaffetz notes, the agency under Koskinen’s leadership has failed time and time again to comply with Congressional investigators:

“Mr. Koskinen failed in his duty to preserve and produce documentation to this Committee. The IRS failed to comply with a congressional subpoena. The IRS further failed by making false statements to Congress. We will pursue all constitutional remedies at our disposal, including potential contempt proceedings or perhaps impeachment of Commissioner Koskinen.”

A recent Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report found that the IRS destroyed 422 backup tapes that investigators believe contained emails to and from Lois Lerner. Further, TIGTA disclosed that there was “potential criminal activity” in the deletion of these emails. This revelation directly conflicted with previous comments Koskinen made under oath that emails could not be recovered.

See also: How Exactly Did Lois Lerner’s Hard Drive Receive “scoring on the top platter”?