This story appeared in The Logoffa daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news rule your life. Register here.
Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump fired one of his appointees who reportedly tried to prevent his team from illegally interfering with the IRS.
What happened? Ken Kies led tax policy at the Treasury Department and concurrently served as acting general counsel for the IRS.
But, according to The Wall Street Journalnow he is forced out. And his firing comes after he clashed with White House officials over certain requests they were making regarding IRS audits — requests that, Kies believed, were illegal.
Federal Law prohibits it the president and White House staff from requesting, “directly or indirectly,” that the IRS “conduct or withhold an audit or other investigation of any taxpayer.”
What was the White House trying to do? We don’t know yet. Possibilities include that they were requesting that certain people or groups, perhaps political enemies, be vetted — or that they were trying to get the ongoing vetting of Trump associates to go away.
Do we know Kies was fired because of this? Not for sure. The Journal reports that administration officials and conservative activists had other complaints about Kies, including that he wasn’t working fast enough to roll back Biden-era regulations, and that he was cracking down on attempts by wealthy investors to get big tax cuts for. not to develop some land.
What to take? In 1971, President Richard Nixon privately he told his assistants that, when he was at the top of the IRS, he wanted a “brutal wolf cub” who would “follow our enemies and not our friends.”
When these and many other abuses of the Nixon era came to light, new laws were passed, and new regulations were instituted to prevent this.
But these principles have been breaking down. Indeed, Vice President JD Vance soon they argued that Nixon’s scandals were not so bad and should not have taken over his presidency at all.
And so, it’s time to leave…
The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina is this Sunday…or is it? That will depend on whether the air filled with wildfire smoke northern New Jersey (and much of the East Coast and Midwest) is improving enough during that time.
Fingers crossed that it will be, but while we wait, read Caitlin Dewey about how US cities had some of the worst air in the world this week.
