Jim Jordan Is No Stranger To Impeachment

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has been pushing hard for an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and this week he got his wish. On Tuesday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed House committees to open a Biden impeachment inquiry.

McCarthy’s unilateral announcement may not have any legal validity.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump’s Justice Department issued a formal Opinion that remains in place today and concluded that House impeachment inquiries are not valid unless a majority of the House authorizes the inquiry by a formal vote. McCarthy, after previously committing to hold a vote to pursue an impeachment inquiry, walked away from his commitment and failed to hold a vote.

As the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jordan leads the key Committee that will be responsible for conducting any formal impeachment inquiry into Biden and for reporting an impeachment resolution to the full House.

Jordan is also a leader of the House Freedom Caucus, an extremist group of House Republicans. He was a founder of the Caucus and its first Chairman.

Jordan is not new to impeachment. He undertook a meritless impeachment effort in 2016 that was an obvious political attack and ultimately turned into a disastrous loss for him.

Jordan, joined by other Freedom Caucus members, went after the IRS, a favorite target of congressional Republicans, by attempting to impeach then-IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who had served Republican and Democratic Presidents over his long and distinguished public service career.

The charges they leveled against Koskinen included accusations that he failed to fully respond to congressional subpoenas and made false and misleading statements to Congress.

But there was no evidence that Koskinen had engaged in any improper conduct. And there was no evidence he interfered with any investigation or made any misrepresentations to Congress.

To put it simply, there was “no there, there.” Jordan had no factual or constitutional basis to back up his claims.

The Justice Department and the Treasury Department’s Inspector General investigated allegations that had been made against the IRS even before Koskinen became Commissioner and found that no wrongdoing had occurred.

Fifteen constitutional scholars wrote to House leaders, stating: “[I]t is clear that the articles of impeachment are completely lacking in substance and would serve no genuine purpose. This is not why the Framers included the impeachment mechanism in the Constitution.”

Eight former IRS Commissioners, appointed by both Democratic and Republican Presidents, wrote to House leaders, stating that Koskinen “is recognized as an honest and honorable public servant who is trying to do a good job on behalf of our country and its citizens in running the IRS under trying circumstances.”

And, 124 tax law professors wrote in a letter: “We believe that nothing that has been reported provides any basis for impeachment or censure. […] We respectfully request that the House reject misguided efforts to impeach or censure Commissioner Koskinen and focus instead on enacting meaningful reforms to our revenue system.”

At the time Jordan filed his impeachment resolution, the House had only once impeached an executive branch official, other than a President. That was in 1876.

When Jordan moved on the House floor to impeach Koskinen in December 2016, he suffered an overwhelming defeat by a vote of 342-to-72. More than two-thirds of his own Republican House colleagues voted to deep-six Jordan’s impeachment resolution.

The House Republicans are a different party today. They live under the heavy thumb of Trump and are “led” by Speaker McCarthy, who is an apparent captive to the wishes of the three dozen or so members of the extremist Freedom Caucus.

Time will tell what happens on the Biden impeachment inquiry. But Jordan’s politically motivated effort to impeach Koskinen was a striking example of how the congressional impeachment process can be abused.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.