Caveat: This is Jack
Townsend’s extended editorial comment on the elimination of DOJ Tax Division.
This is an opinion piece. Those who do not care about my opinion might want to
focus their attention elsewhere.
I previously wrote on the DOJ budget request that included
eliminating the Tax Division. DOJ 2026 Budget Reflects Reorganization Plan
to Eliminate Tax Division and Spread Its Functions to Other Components (CIV and
CRIM) (DOJ Tax Division Alumni Blog 6/17/25), here.
Trump and his minions (collectively Trump) want to (i) benefit real or perceived friends, (ii) punish real or perceived enemies, and (iii)
punish anyone or group or agency that deters him from doing (i) or (ii). Trump’s
list of friends (real or perceived) and enemies (real or perceived) can change
often and depends upon his whim or grievances of the moment. (For the balance
of his posting, I will just refer to friends or enemies, but the reference includes real or perceived.) But I think the throughline is that he really hates his enemies.
And he has made clear that he intends to use DOJ to punish his enemies.
The Tax Division is the least political of DOJ Components.
(I think even less political than the Solicitor General’s office, particularly
after the Bob Jones case where the SG’s office through Larry Wallace, a
career attorney in the SG’s office, showed true independence. See Larry
Wallace of SG's Office and Footnote Fame Dies (DOJ Tax Division Alumni Blog
2/24/20), here)
Trump could have appointed an Assistant Attorney General for
the Tax Division and the next layer of Deputies who likely would bend the knee
to Trump. (I’ll call this group Trump tax acolytes.) But Trump tax acolytes
would have had some difficulty because, in my experience, they would face
resistance in the Tax Division with a tradition of nonpartisanship and overall fairness in tax enforcement. In other
words, the likelihood of resistance to Trump acolytes serving Trump (see items
(i) and (ii) above) is much greater if the Tax Division remained a separate DOJ
Component. And that same likelihood of resistance in the Tax Division as a
separate Component would be true whoever holds the political reins of
power--Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, or even a special category
for Trump (for which there is a name but not appropriate for publication here;
let’s just say it is not a term of endearment.)
