Recently unearthed documents reveal that the FBI knew the IRS was unfairly targeting groups because of their conservative politics two years before Congress even heard about the agency’s misconduct.

The revelation has already added fodder to the conservative case to impeach the current IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

Almost 300 pages of documents released Thursday and obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act confirm that the IRS subjected conservative groups to increased scrutiny beginning in 2011.

Even though the FBI uncovered the scandal in 2011, the documents show, the Department of Justice chose not to act.

In interviews with FBI agents, IRS officials said that a Cincinnati branch of their agency targeted conservative groups.

“Cincinnati was categorizing cases based on name and ideology, not just activity,” Nancy Marks, a senior official at the IRS, told the FBI. That was in the summer of 2011. The public wouldn’t learn of the scandal until May 2013.

The scandal first erupted at an American Bar Association event when IRS official Lois Lerner answered a planted question about the tax agency’s handling of applications for nonprofit status. She apologized for the inappropriate scrutiny some groups experienced, adding that the conduct “was incorrect, insensitive, and inappropriate.”

The documents expose former IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller as the author who actually wrote Lerner’s response word for word.

After multiple congressional hearings, a vote to censure Lerner, and her eventual retirement, the Department of Justice announced the administration would not level criminal charges against the tax official.

“We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt or other inappropriate motive,” the Justice Department wrote members of Congress in an October 2015 letter.

That the administration sat on the information for two years before deciding not to prosecute is “par for the course and, frankly, the stench is overwhelming” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.

The documents underscore the need to impeach Koskinen, members of the House Freedom Caucus say, even though the tax chief wasn’t with the IRS at the time. The group argues that he impeded a subsequent congressional investigation into the scandal and they want a political pound of flesh.

“At the end of the day we have to be able to strike at least one blow on behalf of accountability,” Huelskamp told The Daily Signal.

The administration won’t deal with the situation, said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. The episode, he told The Daily Signal, shows that “there are two sets of rules in this country—one for ‘we, the people’ and another for the politically connected.”

To can Koskinen, members of the Freedom Caucus have filed a parliamentary measure known as a privileged resolution to force a floor vote on impeachment.

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who introduced the motion along with Huelskamp, says the new documents establish a more troubling problem.

“While this provides further confirmation that the IRS was acting to suppress the voices of certain conservative groups, it now raises questions about whether the FBI has been compromised or politicized,” Fleming told The Daily Signal.

That’s “simply outrageous,” says Heritage Foundation legal scholar Hans von Spakovsky, who has watched the scandal unfold since 2013. “No one at the IRS has been punished over this, no one has been prosecuted,” he notes. “Nothing has been done to ensure that this won’t happen again.”

The FBI and IRS did not respond to multiple requests for comment by phone and email from The Daily Signal. (For more from the author of “Justice Department Knew of IRS Scandal 2 Years Before Congress but Did Nothing” please click HERE)

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Conservatives’ campaign to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has yielded hearings but little else. As the congressional calendar slips by, some accuse House Republican leaders of dragging their feet on the issue.

“We’re running out of time” to impeach Koskinen, Rep. Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho, recently told The Daily Signal.

House leadership isn’t serious about impeachment and removal of the IRS chief, Labrador said, adding that he believes House Speaker Paul Ryan and his team probably are “trying to delay it on purpose.”

Conservatives have been angling for Koskinen’s impeachment since last fall. They argue that the nation’s top taxman is unfit for office because of his obstruction of a congressional investigation into how the IRS treated conservative groups that applied for nonprofit tax status.

In October, Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, drew up impeachment articles. Seven months later, Ryan allowed the process to move forward but only after the conservative House Freedom Caucus twisted leadership’s arm on the issue.

The Judiciary Committee invited four scholars to testify June 22 on the constitutional mechanics of impeachment, while Koskinen declined to testify for a second time.

The hearing didn’t shed much light on how the House plans to proceed. The Freedom Caucus, which Labrador helped found, released a statement that afternoon calling for an impeachment vote on the House floor, something leadership has not done.

“Mr. Koskinen is guilty of gross negligence, dereliction of duty, and violating the public trust and therefore meets the legal standard for impeachment of a public official,” the caucus of roughly 40 lawmakers said in the statement.

Chaffetz, who first spearheaded the effort to topple Koskinen, credited leadership for letting the hearing go forward. To keep the impeachment process from stalling, though, the Utah representative led his committee in censuring the tax chief in May.

To the chagrin of Chaffetz, leadership has not scheduled a vote on that measure either.

“Censure and impeachment are directly within [House] control,” Chaffetz told The Daily Signal. “We have no other scapegoat but ourselves. We can moan and groan and cry or we can actually do something. That’s the choice before us.”

Reps. Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Mark Sanford, R-S.C., launched a new effort to end Koskinen’s tenure by emptying his wallet.

The two introduced an amendment to a financial services spending bill to cut the IRS chief’s salary to zero. Because federal law prevents working for free, the duo reasons, the amendment would keep Koskinen from returning to his office.

Whether the measure can gain political traction, or is even constitutional, remains an open question.

Another impeachment avenue exists if all else fails, conservative staffers say. The Freedom Caucus could force an impeachment vote on the floor through a parliamentary procedure known as a “privileged resolution.”

Before the July 22 hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said that he’s focusing on taking things “one step at a time.” But, he noted, the Freedom Caucus “will never rule out anything” when it comes to impeaching Koskinen.

Conservatives’ campaign to impeach Koskinen will have to compete with Democrats’ tactics to force a vote on gun control. With their “sit-in” holding up the House floor, Democrats triggered an early recess before the Fourth of July. They’re promising to renew that effort when Congress returns July 5. (For more from the author of “Conservatives Impatient With House Leadership on Impeaching IRS Chief” please click HERE)

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House Republicans will soon take the next steps necessary in their bid to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee plans to hear testimony and examine charges that Koskinen obstructed a congressional investigation into the agency’s treatment of conservative groups.

While Koskinen is willing to appear at a second hearing in June, the Internal Revenue Service told Politico that the 76-year old commissioner was not able to prepare adequately for the Tuesday hearing. So the nation’s top taxman won’t show.

In a written statement to the Judiciary Committee, Koskinen described the allegations and impeachment resolution as “without merit” and “unwarranted.”

“Under my direction,” Koskinen wrote, “the IRS has responded comprehensively and in good faith to the various subpoenas and document requests from the investigating entities.”

Nevertheless, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told The Daily Signal “that the second hearing is more important.” The Freedom Caucus Chairman, who helped spearhead the impeachment effort, explained that the first hearing “is just sort of to get the facts out there.”

Republicans, like Jordan, say there’s plenty to cover at Tuesday’s hearing without Koskinen.

Conservatives argue that Koskinen is unfit to be tax chief because he flouted congressional authority, allowed subpoenaed emails to be destroyed, and misled the public during his testimony.

“Never lose site of the underlying offense though,” Jordan said, “an agency, with the power the IRS has over American lives, systematically targeted people for their political beliefs. That is as fundamentally wrong you can be.”

In 2010, the agency began flagging applications from conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. Tax agents targeted applications for further review that contained terms such as tea party, patriot, and government spending.

Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., described the agency’s subsequent conduct as “a total obstruction of justice,” in an April interview with The Daily Signal. “And the question is, will Congress do anything when an agency like that walks all over us? Or are we just going to let is happen?”

The Florida prosecutor, who sits on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is slated to testify Tuesday and he’s had plenty of time to prepare: the effort began last October in that committee under chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

Since then, the GOP brass have been hesitant to continue the impeachment process. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that the IRS “needs to be cleaned up” but said that’s a task best suited for after the November election.

To place pressure on leadership, members of the Freedom Caucus went to the floor on April 14 to deliver speeches calling on Ryan and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to end their opposition to proceeding with impeachment.

Later, behind closed doors, conservatives threatened to go it alone. The Freedom Caucus threatened to use a mechanism known as a “privileged resolution” to force a floor vote on impeachment if leadership declined.

Jordan said he believes that Koskinen’s record combined with “members of the Freedom Caucus pushing our leadership to do it, that’s what finally caused us actually to get a hearing.”

After going through the Judiciary Committee, the impeachment effort would still require a majority of the House before going to the Senate for further consideration.

But Jordan wouldn’t comment on what the Freedom Caucus might do if the impeachment effort again got bogged down in committee. The Ohio chairman would only say that “we’re committed to impeaching Mr. Koskinen.”

Historically, this would be a rare move: Congress has only deployed its impeachment power 19 times since the nation’s founding. Koskinen would be just the 20th federal official to be put on congressional trial, and could become only the ninth convicted.

Though the IRS provided Koskinen’s written testimony to The Daily Signal, they did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for additional comment. (For more from the author of “Congress Takes Next Step to Impeach IRS Chief” please click HERE)

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