Aside from promoting right-wing extremism and enriching himself, weaponizing the Internal Revenue Service in ways favorable to Donald Trump seems to be a top priority for the president and members of his administration.
Earlier this week, a federal judge condemned Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit and eventual “settlement” with the IRS as a case brought “in bad faith” — effectively, one filed against his own administration — and designed to “confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President.”
And just days later, there’s reporting on the Trump regime pushing out the top tax official at the Treasury Department. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Kenneth Kies, an assistant treasury secretary and the acting chief counsel of the IRS, was “forced out” after he warned that the White House was at risk of violating a law barring officials from intervening in IRS audits.
Kies at times clashed behind the scenes with White House officials, the people said. That included a recent meeting in which he contended that a potential White House request would violate Section 7217 of the Internal Revenue Code, one of the people said. That law prohibits the president, vice president, White House staff and certain agency heads from directly or indirectly requesting that the IRS conduct or terminate an audit or investigation of any particular taxpayer.
The Journal also included some important historical context:
Violations are punishable with up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines, and IRS officials have long seen the prohibition as an important shield against the kind of political interference that President Richard Nixon tried to impose on the tax agency.
MS NOW has not independently confirmed the report. The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment. The Journal reported that Kies declined to comment.
Vice President JD Vance’s disturbing defense of Richard Nixon and downplaying of the Watergate scandal, along with the MAGA movement’s general infatuation with Nixon, seem all the more relevant now. This is a movement that relishes the misuse of government to shield allies and attack perceived enemies — via “lawfare,” as many conservatives now call it.
Last year, Billy Long’s two-month stint as IRS commissioner ended after the agency reportedly refused to give the Department of Homeland Security tax information for some of the people targeted in Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown.
It’s unclear which audits the White House may have sought to get involved in. But it’s not hard to imagine what this White House could do with a politicized audit system.
Trump has pardoned numerous fraudsters, effectively shielding them from accountability. And at the same time, he has launched racist attacks portraying Somali communities as fraudulent criminals, while also using bogus allegations of fraud to sic his Justice Department on officials, such as Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, and organizations, including the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center, that he sees as impediments to his power grabs.
The Trump regime’s use of fraud claims and tax information to target its adversaries is reminiscent of attacks the federal government launched against civil rights activists in the 1960s. And the reported ouster of Kies seems to show how desperate the president’s allies are to wield influence over the audit process.
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