I read that the head of the IRS was a Bush era appointee. I get why the White House would want to muck around and use people’s tax records and the audit process for political ends, but what was the head of the IRS doing? Cooperating? Looking the other way? Were people just working around him and keeping him in the dark?
Also, back in the day (80s) I worked one summer for the District Counsel of the IRS. There was definitely a professional ethic in our office of being like the “Untouchables”— that the civil servants could not be bought and were determined not to be political. And the secrecy of people’s tax information was absolutely critical and was drilled into us interns time and again. The head of the office recalled proudly how the IRS resisted cooperating with the Nixon White House’s political schemes, as an example. Has the IRS workplace culture changed this much since Bush 41 was president? Or were various employees bullied or pressured to cooperate?
There was a post several days ago that that Bush-appointed IRS head made a contribution to the DNC in 2004. I haven't seen further confirmation of that, but would anyone really be surprised?