The Trump administration is devising a new plan to weaponize the government against his political opponents. This time, his team seeks to mold the Internal Revenue Service into a cudgel to be wielded against the left, and is already putting together a list of targets, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.
Under the plan, MAGA allies would be installed at the IRS criminal investigative division, where they would “exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations.” Spearheading the plan is IRS official Gary Shapley, who, according to WSJ sources, has expressed the possibility of taking the place of the IRS veteran currently heading the investigative unit.
He also reportedly has been compiling “a list of donors and groups he believes IRS investigators should look at.” Possible targets include liberal billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a longstanding boogeyman for the MAGA right, whom the DOJ is reportedly investigating as Trump has called for him to be jailed.
The new IRS plot was conceived after “a separate effort to strip tax-exempt status from certain nonprofits” wasn’t yielding sufficient results for the administration, per the report.
As the Tax Law Center notes, federal law prohibits many government officials, particularly those in the executive branch, from directly or indirectly requesting that a taxpayer be audited or investigated. Such guardrails were strengthened after President Richard Nixon sought to weaponize the IRS against his enemies—abuses detailed in the second article of impeachment against him.
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