Donald Trump just announced he will unilaterally install a loyalist to run the IRS – who could deliver a $7 billion payoff to hedge fund billionaire and Trump megadonor Robert Mercer.
Tell the Senate: No unaccountable Trump loyalist running the IRS! >>
Presidents are required by the U.S. Constitution to get the “advice and consent” of the Senate on key positions like IRS commissioner.
But Trump just announced he will use a massive loophole to do an end-run around the Senate and unilaterally install a loyalist as head of the IRS on November 13.1
Why? Maybe because hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer – who spent more than $20 million getting Trump and other Republicans elected in 2016 and co-owns Breitbart News – owes the IRS up to $7 billion in back taxes.2
Robert Mercer getting an IRS commissioner who makes his tax problems go away would be the heist of the century. And the victim would be taxpayers like you.
Robert Mercer is a name you should know. The New Yorker branded him “the reclusive hedge-fund tycoon behind the Trump presidency.”
He’s one of the biggest megadonors in politics, with $22.5 million in disclosed political spending in the 2016 election helping Trump and other Republicans get elected.3 But that’s not all.
His family owns Cambridge Analytica, the shady political data firm that ran the Trump campaign’s micro-targeting and is making headlines for having reached out to WikiLeaks to try to find and leak Hillary Clinton’s emails.4 And the Mercers are one of 3 owners of Breitbart News, the Steve Bannon-linked outlet notorious for spewing white nationalism.5
Trump announced he will install David Kautter to lead the IRS – who’s been linked to billions in tax avoidance at Ernst & Young.6
Without the ability for the Senate to question or scrutinize Kautter before he starts running the IRS, there is no way he should be trusted to run the agency.
Along with trampling over long-standing political norms like freedom of the press, Trump has begun abusing his power to name “temporary” employees to install cronies inside the government without review by the Senate.
Trump’s famously unqualified cabinet could hardly scrape by Senate confirmation. Now, he’s single-handedly installed acting heads of departments to cut the Senate out entirely from its confirmation role required by the Constitution.7
An unaccountable loyalist running the IRS wouldn’t just be able to give a massive payback to a big Trump donor on the backs of ordinary taxpayers. They could also:
· Interfere with the agency’s role in special counsel Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference, and
· Create a huge conflict of interest overseeing the IRS’s audits of Trump’s own tax returns
We’re demanding that senators step up to stop Trump from unilaterally installing a loyalist as acting IRS commissioner, and we need you to join us. Click here to sign the petition.
Thank you,
Reuben Hayslett
Campaigner