House Democrats seek IRS probe for 'failures to conduct presidential audits' in letter to government watchdog

23 January 2023

Democrats in the House of Representatives are asking a government watchdog to probe the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the agency’s failure to audit former president Donald Trump for the first two years of his presidency, Politico reports.

Spearheaded by California Rep. Jimmy Gomez, 15 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter this week to Government Accountability Office (GAO) chief Gene L. Dorado, which included several questions for the watchdog.

The members wrote, "Members of Congress need further information related to the failures to conduct presidential audits during the Trump Administration to ensure that, as elected representatives, we are adequately equipped to assess and address the integrity and continued function of the presidential audit program, as well as necessary improvements to the program.”

As Trump’s campaign staff gear up for his 2024 presidential run, the Democratic House members are set on ensuring the agency’s mistake is not taken lightly.

In the letter, the members ask why the IRS didn’t begin to audit Trump until Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) requested the former president’s tax information in Spring of 2019, over two years into his term.

According to Politico, the group also asked in the letter that why did the agency not seek assistance from the Treasury Department or from Congress if the obstacle to conducting a proper audit was mainly Trump’s hundreds of entities.

After years of Trump fighting the release of his tax returns and insisting that he had nothing to hide, House Democrats released six years worth of returns last month.

The release, which included over 2,700 pages of Trump’s business entities as well as “income flowing from foriegn countries,” revealed that the former president cheated on his tax returns for years.

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