Today the House Judiciary Committee took up the shameful attempt to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen without even granting him due process. The Constitution reserves impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” yet so-called Freedom Caucus continues to lead an effort to impeach the Commissioner despite two independent investigations that cleared him. Separate investigations by the Treasury Department Inspector General and the Justice Department concluded that there were no crimes, much less high crimes, in the IRS’s response to Congressional inquiries about the agency’s treatment of conservative groups applications for privileged tax status.

Regular order was ignored in the Judiciary Committee’s rush to judgement by referring articles of impeachment. House leaders should curb this attempted railroading of a civil servant or partisan impeachments will become a regular occurrence on Capitol Hill as politicians utilize such serious proceedings in attempts to “win” a new cycle or two or frame an issue during the election season. Chairman Goodlatte and the Judiciary Committee should call off this sham and apologize to Commissioner Koskinen.