Update on Effect of the DOJ Tax Reorganization on Appellate Section (3/18/26)

The Civil Division’s Tax Litigation Branch filed a motion, here, for a 30-day Extension to file petition for rehearing en banc in brief in Sirius Solutions, LLLP v. Commissioner (5^th Cir. No. 24-60240). The substantive issue in the case is not relevant to this posting on the DOJ Tax Division Alumni Blog, but I provide links at the end of the this blog. In part here relevant, the Motion says (pp. 2-3):

   2. I am an Assistant Director of the Appellate Section of the Civil Division’s Tax Litigation Branch at the United States Department of Justice, n1 and I am the supervisory attorney assigned to this case. Paul Allulis, the lead attorney responsible for briefing and arguing this case, left the Department of Justice and withdrew from this case in late May 2025. Samuel Jones was reassigned as the lead attorney, but Mr. Jones is currently out of the office for an extended period on parental leave. The Appellate Section has lost over 40% of its attorneys since February 2025, due to retirement, resignation, or temporary transfer. Therefore, at this time, it is not possible for me to assign this case to yet another attorney, who would need to devote time to learning the issues  [*3] in this case. Accordingly, I am now handling this matter myself, in addition to my managerial duties.

    n1 As part of a planned Department of Justice restructuring, the Tax Division, which previously handled this case, ceased to exist effective November 30, 2025. At that time the civil litigation functions of the Tax Division, including the Appellate Section handling this case, were transferred to the Civil Division, and into a new Tax Litigation Branch.

   3. Filing of a petition for rehearing en banc may proceed only if authorized by the Solicitor General, after consideration of the views of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice and of the Chief Counsel at the Internal Revenue Service. See 28 C.F.R. Part O, Subpart D, § 0.20(b). This process requires collecting recommendations from agencies interested in the proceeding and of attorneys assigned to the case at the Department of Justice, and their supervisors, which recommendations the Office of the Solicitor General considers in deciding whether to authorize an appeal. This process requires review of the record and consideration of the legal issues by attorneys who were not involved in the trial court proceedings and who are, at the same time, handling other active litigation and managerial duties. Although the process of obtaining authorization is underway, the Department is still engaged in determining whether to pursue further review in this matter. If a petition for rehearing en banc is authorized, it will be necessary to take into account the Solicitor General’s views in drafting the petition for rehearing.

 The Motion states (p. 6 ¶ 6) that the Appellant opposes the Motion.

 Documents relevant to the underlying issue are

1. The Panel Opinion in Sirius Solutions is here (CA5) and here (GS).

2. My blog on the Panel Opinion is Fifth Circuit Knows a Limited Partner When Reads It (Federal Tax Procedure Blog 1/24/26; 1/20/26), here.

Death of Judge E. Grady Jolly 3/16/26 (3/17/26)

E. Grady Jolly, longtime Fifth Circuit Judge, died on 3/16/26. See the obituary here. The obit says in part relevant to his Tax Division service:

Judge Jolly began his legal career as a trial attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from 1962 to 1964. He then served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi from 1964 to 1967, and subsequently as a lawyer for the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1967 to 1969. In 1969, he returned to Mississippi, entering private practice in Jackson, where he honed his skills for thirteen years before his federal judicial appointment. 

Opportunity to Comment on Proposed DOJ Rule Titled "Review of State Bar Complaints and Allegations Against Department of Justice Attorneys" (3/11/26)

A DOJ Tax Alumnus forwarded me the information below about an opportunity for Alumni to make comments to the proposed  DOJ rule titled "Review of State Bar Complaints and Allegations Against Department of Justice Attorneys." The proposed rule on the Federal Register is here. 

According to the Justice Connection podcast, the effect of the rule is to "block State Bar Ethics Investigations" of DOJ attorneys.  See the Justice Connection podcast titled “AG Bondi's Attempt to Block State Bar Ethics Investigations: A Discussion with Stacey Young & Glenn Kirschner,” here.

Comments are due before the April 6 deadline.

Comments can be made here.

 The Federal Register notice of the rule indicates that, as of the time I am writing this blog on 3/11/26 at 8:00pm, 27,588 comments have been received.) There is a link on the page (upper right) to view posted comments; that link is here.

DOJ Tax Division Alumni Reunion-Notice and Registration (2/23/26)

 

Save the Date for the DOJ Tax Division Alumni Reunion on Friday, May 8 from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. at Miller & Chevalier Chartered

Picking up on the tradition in place for many years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, please save the date for a reunion of the DOJ Tax Division to be held on Friday, May 8, 2026, coinciding with the ABA Tax Section's May Meeting in Washington, DC. The reunion will be hosted at the offices of Miller & Chevalier Chartered, 900 16th Street, NW.

DOJ Tax Division alumni have cherished memories of time spent in the Tax Division – the comrades, the work, the opportunities. That important work continues apace at the tax branches of the DOJ Civil and Criminal Divisions.

For Tax Division alumni and those at the tax branches able to attend, please register using the link below. To cover catering costs, we ask attendees to contribute $50 toward the event. Payment details will be provided to all registrants. Space is limited, so please do not register unless you will be able to attend.

We're looking forward to another great reunion.

Register here: https://bit.ly/4aBs4TG

After registering at the link above, you will receive an email acknowledging registration and with instructions for payment. Please be patient about the email, because the emails are sent out periodically rather than immediately upon registering.

Alumni Planning Committee

▪️ Lauren Darwit, Moore Tax Law Group; former Trial Attorney, Civil Trial Section Central
▪️ Michael Desmond, Miller & Chevalier Chartered; former Trial Attorney, Civil Trial Section Western
▪️ Patrick Mullarkey, former Chief, Civil Trial Section Northern
▪️ Jack Townsend, former Trial Attorney, Tax Division Refund Trial Section 2 and Tax Division Appellate Section

Death of Joseph Salus (2/16/26)

Joseph Salus II died on February 13. The obituary from WAPO is here. The portion of the obituary on the Tax Division and related career is:

Joe had a long, illustrious career as a "supergrade" (now, SES) trial attorney (tax) at the U.S. Department of Treasury, IRS Office of the Chief Counsel and then at the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Tax Division. He held temporary assignments at the U.S. Department of State, where he negotiated Mutual Assistance (Tax) Agreement treaties. A lifelong true Republican, Joe famously took on Richard M. Nixon in a tax-related case.

It is not clear whether the Nixon “tax-related case” was while he was with DOJ Tax or with the IRS. If anyone recalls the story behind that cryptic comment, please tell the story in a comment below or email it to me (jack@tjtaxlaw.com) and state whether I have permission to post as a comment on this blog entry and identify the source.

Death of Mike Durney (1/11/26; 1/16/26)

I received an email from Roger Olsen advising that Mike Durney died yesterday, 1/10/26. He received the information from Mike’s daughter. Updated 1/16/26 @ 3:00pm: The obtuary is here. The obituary indicates that service will be held 2/7/26 @ 11:00am at St. Patricks Episcopal Church, 4700 Whitehaven Pkwy NW, Washington, DC 20007.

My database indicates that Mike's service with DOJ Tax was

TAX DIV ALUMNI SECTIONS

SECTION	POSITION	BEGYEAR	ENDYEAR
FRONT OFFICE	DEP A.A.G, ACTING A.A.G	1986	1988
REFUND 3	TRIAL ATTORNEY	1968	1972

Mike was predeceased by his wife, Ann Belanger Durney, longtime DOJ Tax Appellate attorney, who died in October 2001.

Correction 1/11/26 10:30pm. I posted a church for the services that appears to be the wrong church. Accordingly, I have deleteed that information; on 1/16/26 @ 3pm, I posted the correct information above.

Interesting Article Featuring DOJ Tax Attorneys (Now Alumni) (1/11/26)

Alumni might be interested in this recent article: Jens Heycke, Tax Enforcers Are Actually the Good Guys (The Dispatch 1/6/26), here. The subtopic is: By cutting resources for prosecuting rich tax cheats, the Trump administration is leaving billions of dollars on the table.

Here is the most relevant excerpt for the Tax Division:

          In 2014, a group of Department of Justice Tax Division attorneys went to a Washington Nationals game, hoping to enjoy a night off watching baseball. But when a camera found them and the ballpark’s Jumbotron flashed “DOJ Tax Division,” the stadium booed them so loudly it rattled the ice cubes in their drinks.

          Few government functions provoke as much reflexive hostility as tax enforcement. This is not lost on the IRS. Its Washington headquarters appears on Google Maps under the obscure label “DC0022 Government Office,” as if anonymity might spare it from the public’s animus. It doesn’t. Nearly 80 percent of the reviews of the building on Constitution Avenue are one star, with comments like: “Horrible organization that needs to be shut down.”

          But here’s what those reviewers and the Nationals crowd missed: The same year those DOJ tax prosecutors got booed, they forced Credit Suisse to pay $2.6 billion for its role in assisting ultra-rich tax evaders. With one settlement, they recovered more than 20 times their annual budget. Meanwhile, the prosecutor who told me about the Nationals Park episode was spearheading another massive investigation. The case, which involved data encrypted into photographs, false-bottom briefcases, and custom-encrypted servers, was settled last month for more than $750 million.

Also, the following except may not be right in that the DOJ Tax Criminal attorneys were transferred to the Criminal Division:

          This year, the Trump administration dismantled the DOJ’s Tax Division, dispersing its attorneys and enforcement functions. The specialists who know how to chase money hidden offshore were relocated to regional U.S. Attorney offices, where they will be assigned to other tasks. Many of the top tax prosecutors have resigned.

Also, I recommend that those with time and interest browse the comments to the article.

Heycke also authored Death, Taxes, and Turduckens: Unraveling History’s Biggest Tax Heist And the Broken System That Enabled It (2025), Amazon here, about the Brockman tax fraud, prosecution, and death avoiding conviction. For Federal Tax Crimes Blog posts on Brockman, see here.

 

Death of Lillie Davis Neamo (1/11/26)

Lillie Davis Neamo passed away 1/1/26. See WAPO obituary here. According to the obituary, she served at DOJ for 42 years and “served as a Supervisory Litigation Assistant for the Tax Division, Appellate Section,” which I presume was her most recent position at DOJ Tax.

According to the obituary, events on 1/14/26 are visitation (10-11am) and service (11am-12pm) at Marshall-March Funeral Homes - The District of Columbia, 5119 4th St. NW, Washington, DC 20011.

DOJ Tax Alumnus John Dowd Speaks Up for Jack Smith (12/18/25)

John Dowd, a DOJ Tax Alumnus, authored this opinion piece in MS Now:  I was Donald Trump’s lawyer. Jack Smith should be celebrated, not vilified (MS Now 12/16/25), here. 

Of course, every person who has bothered to become informed and is not blinded by bias (ideology, self-promotion, etc.) knows that Jack Smith is a class act. Smith should be able to tell his side of the story in an open public session where everyone participating (Smith and congressmen) can show who they really are.

Dowd also is a class act. Dowd’s Wikipedia page is here.

Great Article on DOJ Tax Alumnus, George Elias (12/16/25)

Florida Bar News has this article: Samadhi Jones, Miami's George Elias nears 99 still practicing, mentoring, and giving back (12/15/25), here.

DOJ Tax relevant excerpts:

At age 23, in his first job out of law school, Elias found himself sitting before the U.S. Supreme Court at the solicitor general’s table on the team that handled treason cases before Chief Justice Earl Warren, Justice Hugo Black, et al. Chief Justice Warren himself admitted Elias to the Supreme Court Bar less than two years later. Elias later transferred to the tax division before moving to Miami where he opened a private practice in trust and tax law, a practice that he continues to operate today.

It is not clear to me, but I infer that he may have been first in the SG’s office and then transferred to the Tax Division. If so, that would have been an unusual trajectory to the Tax Division.

There is much more about his life in the article. I highly recommend that DOJ Tax Alumni click the link and read it.