Hubbert Article on Tax Division Demise (10/24/25)

David Hubbert, for AAG Tax, has written a thoughtful article for Blomberg: David Hubbert, What to Watch for in the Wake of the Tax Division’s Demise (BloombergLaw Tax Management Memo 10/24/25), here. All of it is good, so I don’t try to summarize it.

Karen Kelly Article on Federal Tax Prosecutions Before and After Department of Justice Tax Division Is Eliminated (10/19/25)

I point DOJ Tax Alumni to Karen Kelly and Caroline Rule’s article titled Federal Tax Prosecutions Before and After Department of Justice Tax Division Is Eliminated (White Collar Crime Litigation 9/22/25), here. Kelly was formerly a leader in the Tax Division before its demise at the behest of the Trump Administration. Kelly is now with Kostelanetz where Caroline Rule is a partner. Caroline Rule is a major force in tax crimes.

I have been trying to determine how the DOJ Tax functions would be folded into the DOJ Civil and Criminal Divisions, respectively. The article says:

According to the reorganization, the Civil Tax Division attorneys and the Criminal Tax Division attorneys will be relocated from the Tax Division into their respective components  at the DOJ: the DOJ Civil Division and the DOJ Criminal Division. There will then be a separate tax section within each division. Within the Civil Division, the tax attorneys will be renamed the Tax Litigation Section, which will include the six geographical Civil Trial Sections, 1 the Court of Federal Claims unit, the Office of Review, and the Appellate unit. On the criminal tax side, the attorneys will be moved into the Tax Section of the Criminal Division, which will include the three geographical regions and the Criminal Appeal unit. At least initially, the criminal attorneys will continue to be organized by geographic regions within the Tax Section. Presently, the regions are Northern Criminal Enforcement Section, Southern Criminal Enforcement Section, and Western Criminal Enforcement Section.

I infer that the pyramid structures in both DOJ Tax Civil and Criminal will be moved into the DOJ Civil and Criminal Sections, respectively. Presumably, some of the top level DOJ Tax Civil and Criminal Sections functions will be thinned out or eliminated, but some type of pyramid structure will remain. The basic work functions to line level attorneys will remain the same.

I await an org chart from the DOJ Civil and Criminal Divisions to get a better fix on this.

Editorial Comment by Former DOJ Tax Prosecutor on The Federal Prosecutor’s Decision Not to Charge (10/17/25)

DOJ Tax Alumni may be interested in this Editorial Comment by a DOJ Tax Alumnus, Mike Romano: The Federal Prosecutor’s Decision Not to Charge (Justice Connection 10/17/25), here

. A somewhat long excerpt from the beginning:

The decision not to charge someone is a critical part of a prosecutor’s job, but it often goes unseen. I learned this first-hand during my 18 years as a DOJ prosecutor – prosecuting tax fraud across the country, violent crimes in Washington, D.C., then January 6 cases with the Capitol Siege Section, and later public corruption cases with the Public Integrity Section (before this administration dismantled it.

Criminal charges, after all, come with a host of consequences, whether or not the person charged is ever convicted. Police may take the person into custody, depriving them of their liberty, even if only for a few hours. They may be compelled to appear in court and sit through a trial, both of which are further deprivations of liberty. That person will need a defense attorney, the cost of which can be astronomical. And the mere fact of criminal charges, and an arrest record, can cause real harm to a person’s reputation and employability, even if that person is never convicted.

Every federal prosecutor I worked with took the decision to charge—or, not to charge—extremely seriously. And when an investigation convinced me that no crime had been committed, or the wrong person had been accused, I was proud not to bring charges, or to dismiss charges that were unwarranted.

Doing this was my legal, ethical, and moral obligation; it was, in my view, the sort of exercise that made the Department’s use of power legitimate.

Justice Department prosecutors have a guide called the Principles of Federal Prosecution, which helps them determine when a case should or should not be brought. One of those principles is the following:

[A]s a matter of fundamental fairness and in the interest of the efficient administration of justice, no prosecution should be initiated against any person unless the attorney for the government believes that the admissible evidence is sufficient to obtain and sustain a guilty verdict by an unbiased trier of fact.

Romano's editorial comments echo the foundational speech by Attorney Robert Jackson later Supreme Court Justice) in 1940, titled The Federal Prosecutor, DOJ link here; alternative link here. (I provide an alternative link because I can't be sure it will stay on the DOJ website since its sentiments are not the sentiments of the current powers that be in DOJ.)

Fillable On-Line Form to Assess Interest in DOJ Tax Alumni Reunion/Wake (10/7/25)

In the immediate past post, I sought input on the possibility of a DOJ Tax Division Alumni Reunion/Wake in May 2025 at the time of the ABA Tax Section Meeting May 7-9, 2026. I have set up a Google Form for Alumni to state their interest.

The Google Form is here: https://forms.gle/pGkKfz73NUvSQ1EAA

I urge Alumni who may be interested to complete the form so that those in the planning group (yet to be formed) can gauge interest and identify an appropriate venue for the event.

Also, since the DOJ Tax Alumni are far larger in number (by many multiples) than my current email list, please forward the link to the Form to as many DOJ Tax Alumni as you know. I will regret Alumni who might be interested not knowing of the event.

Thank you.

Jack Townsend.

Assessing Interest in a Final DOJ Tax Division Alumni Reunion/Wake and Making it Happen (10/4/25)

Alumni may remember that in the 1990s and early 2000s, we had 5-year Tax Division Alumni Reunion Events. With the demise of the Tax Division, I thought it might be appropriate to have a final reunion/wake. As before, I think the best time is contemporaneous with the ABA Tax Section May Meeting, the next being May 7-9, 2026, which might attract many non-D.C. area alumni to attend.

Please share your thoughts on whether this is a feasible project. And let me know your thoughts as to how to make it happen. Additionally, some volunteers to help make it happen would be greatly appreciated.

Please share this information with alumni you may know so that, hopefully, we can make the event as well attended as possible.

You may email me at jack@tjtaxlaw.com or comment below.

Thanks,

Jack Townsend