A dozen Senate Democrats demanded an investigation Tuesday into a report that a top IRS tax lawyer was forced out of his job after telling the White House it could not pressure the tax agency to go after specific taxpayers.
In a letter to a Treasury Department internal watchdog, the senators asked whether White House officials broke the law by trying to steer an IRS audit or investigation, and whether Kenneth Kies, the department’s top tax-policy official and the acting chief lawyer at the IRS, lost his job for standing in the way.
The request stems from a Wall Street Journal report that Kies was pushed out after clashing with White House officials, including during a recent meeting when Kies cited a federal law that prohibits the president, vice president and other officials from asking the IRS to start or stop an audit or investigation of a particular taxpayer. The law carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of its sensitivity, confirmed to The Washington Post that Kies was asked to leave, but The Post has not independently verified what prompted his ouster. The Journal story did not say exactly what White House request Kies may have objected to.
A White House official also confirmed Tuesday that Kies was asked to leave, but said via email that the reason was because “Ken was not a team player and was extremely difficult to work with.” The official refused to be identified.
Kies, a longtime corporate tax lobbyist and former top congressional tax staffer, was appointed as assistant treasury secretary last year. Soon after, he also became acting chief counsel of the IRS, a dual role that gave him authority over implementing the tax cuts and other provisions in the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act during this year’s tax season. In remarks to the House Ways and Means Committee last month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called it “the most successful filing season in IRS history.”
Kies cleaned out his office Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel issue. An updated org chart posted to the IRS website listed Kies’s deputy, Kevin Salinger, as IRS acting chief counsel.
In a statement, Kies said he is proud to have helped advance President Donald Trump’s economic and tax agenda and that he would continue to do so upon his return to the private sector.
“I believe these accomplishments have strengthened our economy and improved the economic wellbeing of all Americans,” the statement said. “None of what I accomplished would have been possible without Secretary Bessent’s exemplary leadership and unwavering support.”
In their letter, the senators noted that Kies would have been legally required to report any improper influence by the White House to the Treasury’s acting inspector general for tax administration, Heather M. Hill. The same law that bars officials from leaning on the IRS requires any agency employee who receives an inappropriate request to report it or face the same punishment. As the IRS’s acting top lawyer, the senators wrote, Kies was better positioned than anyone in the administration to judge whether a request crossed the line.
“These guardrails are critical to prevent public officials from abusing (or threatening to abuse) the IRS’s tax enforcement authority to quash political opposition or reward political favors,” the senators wrote. The letter’s 12 Democratic signatories include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) and Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the ranking Democrat on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also signed.
If the internal watchdog were to find that the law was broken, it would fall to Trump’s Department of Justice to bring criminal charges, an unlikely outcome. But Democrats could pursue the matter themselves through subpoenas and investigations if they were to win control of the House or Senate in November.
“When you have a public servant who wants to play by the rules, you should support them, not fire them,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont), who signed the letter, said in an interview Tuesday.
The tax agency has faced turnover in its top ranks since Trump took office, cycling through more than half a dozen commissioners or acting commissioners. Bessent took over as acting commissioner last year, but his legal authority to hold that title expired in March. Day-to-day leadership now rests with Frank Bisignano, who runs the IRS as its “CEO,” a role that does not formally exist in law, while he simultaneously serves as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
The senators’ letter is the latest allegation that the Trump administration is trying to bend the IRS toward political ends. The president has repeatedly tried to use the powers of the federal government to punish rivals, including directing the Department of Justice to prosecute them.
In October, Wyden and more than a dozen colleagues warned Bessent against efforts to reshape the agency’s criminal-investigation division to pursue left-leaning groups and Democratic donors. Bessent said on a podcast that month that the administration had begun to assemble lists of individuals and groups to investigate after the killing of conservative political influencer Charlie Kirk.
Last year, Democrats also challenged the administration’s push to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status after Trump said in a Truth Social post: “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!”
And this spring, the senators questioned a settlement, reached after Trump sued the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, that sought to shield him and his family from future audits. A federal judge this month found that the settlement “directly contravenes” the audit-interference law, part of a blistering ruling that concluded the president’s lawyers had used a collusive lawsuit to win him immunity, as well as access to taxpayer money.
Ben Binday contributed to this report.
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