In a report described as an exclusive, complete with anonymous “people familiar with the matter” sources, The Wall Street Journal is claiming that President Trump wants to restructure an IRS division to go after his political enemies. The report is titled “Trump Team Plans IRS Overhaul to Enable Pursuit of Left-Leaning Groups.”
The rest of the legacy media is following suit with the same framing and, in some cases, a little more projection. Like this headline from The Daily Beast: “Trump Plots Major Agency Overhaul to Ramp Up Probes of His Enemies,” as though when President Trump plans to change something, it’s automatically assumed to be a dastardly plot. The Beast is taking a normal shakeup and going headfirst into conspiracy theory territory.
To be sure, since the Journal is relying on anonymous sources, and since it may have gotten some recent, rather dubious stories about Trump wrong, take all of this with a grain of salt.
The Journal is reporting that the White House wants to restructure the Criminal Investigation Division within the IRS. This, the Journal says, would make it easier to conduct investigations of Trump’s political enemies, including Democrat donors and affiliated organizations. The report adds that the administration may already be putting together a list of potential subjects for future investigations.
To do all of this, the Journal says the Trump Administration must “install” allies within the Criminal Investigation Division. But must it really? The Journal says “Trump allies” would weaken the influence of internal lawyers who help IRS agents with specific situations. But who are those nameless lawyers? Could any of them be some of the anonymous sources for this story?
The Journal reports that Gary Shapley, the Deputy Chief of Criminal Investigation at the IRS, has informed employees that he will likely succeed the division’s current head, Guy Ficco, and that he’s assembling a list of investigation targets. These targets could include George Soros. Again, the Journal relied on anonymous sources here.
I reported in late September that Soros and his Open Society Foundations are already the subjects of a Department of Justice investigation, according to the New York Times. That investigation is considering possible violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which has been used to take down organized crime groups. PJ Media’s Catherine Salgado reported on how Soros allegedly poured $80 million into pro-terror extremist groups.
Considering those investigations, it would make sense that the IRS would be cooperating with them and perhaps conducting investigations of its own. But that’s not how the WSJ wants to frame it. Instead, it’s making it appear to be a personal vendetta for Trump.
For his part, Trump has had choice words for Soros and others who’ve attacked him at every level, and it’s perfectly within reason for the president to feel that those who did him wrong should face justice. The fact that the DOJ now answers to him seems to be the real sticking point for many in the legacy media. It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. Thus, when actual justice is served, it must be spun so that it looks like nothing other than petty politics.
Rather than conduct investigations of its own into alleged wrongdoing on the part of any of the IRS’s potential targets, the Journal appears to be opting for the “Republicans pounce” story angle, which is a favorite in lazy and vindictive leftist media circles.
The WSJ seems to have forgotten that President Barack Obama’s IRS went after Tea Party groups, and while there were investigations and apologies much later, the damage to the Tea Party movement had already been done. What’s that they say about it being better to beg forgiveness than ask permission? Obama knows.
While federal law makes it a felony for the administration and anyone outside of the Attorney General's office to request an investigation of an individual taxpayer, that doesn’t mean Trump or anyone else must turn a blind eye to the corruption all around them and be quiet about it.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who oversees the IRS, went on record in an interview on "The Charlie Kirk Show" with current host Andrew Kolvet that indeed, Treasury is making lists of potential culprits behind the left-wing violence that is increasingly plaguing the nation. His thinking is that they can weaken the organizations behind the violence through better scrutiny of their money flows.
“We have started to compile lists of the other networks, and there’s a long record here,” he said. “This is mission-critical for us now… We are operationalizing this here at Treasury.”
Expect the legacy media to continue to frame all of this as an illegal and unconstitutional power grab. Personal revenge for Trump.
Most people who put themselves in Trump’s shoes (and millions have) can understand why he’d want revenge. For that reason alone, don’t expect this story to gain much traction outside of the Beltway, or in legacy media newsrooms, or on late-night “comedy” shows.
Related: About Those ICE Detainees: Why Are Democrats Working so Hard to Defend Hardened Criminals?
Tied to all of this is Gary Shapley. It’s worth knowing a little about him before the narrative further unfolds. The left may try to paint him as one of the villains in this tale. Why?
He was a long-time IRS employee in its Criminal Investigation division. In 2023, he testified before Congress as a whistleblower in the Hunter Biden tax case. Shapley alleged that the DOJ and U.S. Attorneys under President Joe Biden “slow-walked” certain parts of the investigation and actively worked to impede the IRS’s work.
With a resume like that, the Left and the legacy media may have a little revenge in mind of their own.
Meanwhile, the Schumer Shutdown is dragging on. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown over healthcare for illegal aliens. They own this.
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