Information gleaned from former President Donald Trump‘s tax returns released by Congress this week helped demonstrate the “rampant corruption” of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during his time in office, according to former U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner, who is now an MSNBC analyst.
The returns, released following a late Tuesday night vote by members of the House Ways and Means Committee, revealed largely what was already known from a New York Times investigation at the height of his administration: that he was never under audit like he claimed, and that Trump helped use millions of dollars in business losses over the years to avoid paying taxes, even as he’d received millions of dollars in income from other sources.
However, a 29-page summary report issued by the Ways and Means Committee following the vote revealed that the IRS—then led by former U.S. Treasurer Steve Mnuchin—apparently failed to carry out a mandatory audit of Trump’s tax returns in a timely manner, the first such delay since the days of former President Richard Nixon.
Getty Images
While there is nothing in the report suggesting that Trump or members of his administration were involved in the IRS decision, Mnuchin—an acolyte of the president—would later use his position to block Congress from accessing his returns in what government watchdogs Citizens for a Responsible and Ethical Washington called an “unprecedented” challenge to House investigators’ authority.
Newsweek reached out to the IRS for comment, while a spokesperson there noted that the agency is prohibited from discussing any specific taxpayer’s information.
Trump’s early budgets continuously slashed the IRS’ budget, even as Mnuchin called for more resources. The Ways and Means Committee report noted that IRS investigators appeared to give too much leeway to Trump’s accounting firm, which they professed to believe provided accurate information about his income.
Some, however, saw the oversight as a sign of something more nefarious.
In a series of tweets, Kirschner said the documents helped underscore what he described as “rampant corruption” within the agency, arguing that the lack of an official audit until three years into Trump’s term was not simply an accident, but something more.
“With the release of Trump’s tax returns we learned, among other things, that Steve Mnuchin was running the IRS like a corrupt arm of Donald Trump’s criminal enterprise,” Kirschner tweeted. “How…long do the American people have to suffer the indignity of rampant corruption in government with no accountability for those who plainly violate their oath of office & betray the public trust?”
There have been some tweaks to IRS rulemaking after Trump left office. However, a lack of teeth in enforcing larger taxpayers—along with a 2 percent cut to the agency’s budget in the upcoming $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package up for a vote this week—has some yearning for more.
“It’s time for true & sweeping reform,” Kirschner added. “It’s time for a renaissance of ethics in government. It starts by amending the oath of office to require all government officials & employees to ‘promptly report crimes and corruption by government officials & employees of which I become aware.’ Whistleblowing should not be the exception. It should be the norm, the expectation, indeed the SWORN DUTY of ALL members of the federal government. Stay tuned friends.”
With the release of Trump’s tax returns we learned, among other things, that Steve Mnuchin was running the IRS like a corrupt arm of Donald Trump’s criminal enterprise. How f’ing long do the American people have to suffer the indignity of rampant corruption in government with
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) December 22, 2022
