House Speaker John Boehner called Monday for "somebody at the IRS" to get tossed behind bars for a targeting scandal that put tea party and conservative groups through extra scrutiny.
And he vowed the wheels are in motion this week to ensure that happens.
Retired IRS official Lois Lerner is facing possible contempt charges from Chairman Darrell Issa's House Oversight and Reform Committee — as well as scrutiny from the House Ways and Means Committee, Boehner pointed out.
Ways and Means is meeting in executive session Wednesday on whether to refer Lerner to the Department of Justice on criminal charges "for misleading the Congress," the Ohio lawmaker said, adding there have "taxpayers who have been harmed."
And the Oversight Committee, he added, meets Thursday, about possible contempt charges. He said after an Easter break, he expected the issue could come to a vote before Congress.
"I want to know who's going to jail," he told Megyn Kelly's on the Fox News show
"The Kelly Files."
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"There are specific laws that force the IRS to comply with the law. Somebody at the IRS violated the law."
He declined to say if more than one official could be expected to be held accountable in the scandal.
"I would expect the Congress will take up that contempt resolution," he said. "I made it clear she was going to tell us the truth or we will hold her in contempt. ... The House will hold her in contempt."
On the attack on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, Boehner also vowed a resolution.
"I'm a big believer in accountability and transparency," he said. "There's no one more serious about getting to the bottom of this than me," adding four committees are investigating the 2012 attack.
"Four Americans were killed," he said. "No one is more determined to get to the truth than I am."
He said he saw "no point" in breaking up the work of the four committees in favor of a select committee to look into the matter, as some have called for.
Boehner also weighed in on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's assertion that sometimes illegal immigration is "an act of love."
"I understand what Jeb was saying," he said. "But we're also a nation of laws.... For those without documents, they're going to have to face the law eventually."
He then echoed his rationale for why Republican lawmakers are suspicious of reform.
"The United States wants us to deal with immigration," he said. "But every time but every time the president has ignored the law... how can we trust the president to obey the law and enforce the law" Congress would legislate.
"He will spoil the well to the point that no one will trust him," he said.
Boehner also defended the so-called "doctor fix" in Obamacare to help small employers.
"Our goal is to protect the American people from the awful effects of this law... and to repeal it. ... There have been eight or nine changes to the law already."
The provision eliminated a cap on deductibles for small group policies offered inside the law's healthcare exchanges, as well as outside. The cap had been set at $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families.
The Speaker also said a GOP majority in the Senate and House "gives us the opportunity to force the president's hand. ... I think it will give us the opportunity to put things on the president's desk and say 'choose, veto or sign'," he said.
On much-reported divisions between tea party groups and mainstream Republicans, Boehner dismissed a supposed "gap."
"There's no differences here – Obamacare, economy, jobs," saying instead there are "disagreements over tactical moves."
But the tactical moves on the popular Netflix series "House of Cards," which is a must-watch for many inside the Beltway, Boehner laughed, he's never seen it.
"I'm going to have to watch it," he said, giving a definitive "No," to whether he's portrayed in the series.
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