Democrats push for investigation into fired IRS lawyer who reportedly clashed with White House over audits

Administration Democrats push for investigation into fired IRS lawyer who reportedly clashed with White House over audits Comments: by Mira Bhakta - 07/22/26 10:22 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Mira Bhakta - 07/22/26 10:22 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Senate Democrats are pushing for an investigation into an ousted Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lawyer who was reportedly fired after clashes with the White House.

The group of Democrats sent a letter to the Treasury Department questioning if Kenneth Kies, the agency’s acting chief counsel, lost his job for refusing to follow instructions by White House officials to steer an IRS audit.

Doing so would violate Section 7217 of the IRS code, the Democrats said, which deems it unlawful for anyone to force the agency into opening, terminating, or directing an investigation into any taxpayer. The IRS code also directs Kies to report any illegal influence by White House officials if it did occur.

The letter was sent following a report from The Wall Street Journal that alleged Kies was let go for standing in the way of White House officials. The IRS website now lists the chief counsel position which Kies occupied as vacant.

Kies previously served as the former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation and worked as a corporate tax lobbyist before joining the IRS. He released a statement earlier this week expressing gratitude for helping advance President Trump’s economic mission and said he would continue this work in his return to the private sector.

Kies and the IRS are not the only agency being questioned by Democrats as the Social Security Administration (SSA) has also been sent a letter for “misleading information” sent in an email to retirees.

In this letter, Senate Democrats expressed frustration over what they said was the failure by current SSA leadership to keep the agency nonpartisan.

“You have once again disregarded your promise to ‘run the SSA in an independent and nonpartisan manner’ and instead are wasting taxpayer resources while threatening the credibility and trustworthiness of the Social Security program,” the senators wrote.

Arguments about the IRS’s autonomy and its investigations have been made repeatedly. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimedthe agency, directed by former President Biden, was unfairly targeting his family.

The agency has also been the subject to a $10 billion lawsuit by President Trump over claims a tax contractor leaked his tax returns to news outlets. Earlier this month, a federal judge said the lawsuit was brought for an “improper purpose” and referred Trump’s lawyer to the Florida bar.

Democrats said the firing of Kies endangered the IRS’s independence.

“When you have a public servant who wants to play by the rules, you should support them, not fire them,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a signee of the letter to the IRS, said in an interview Tuesday.

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