5 Questions James Gadwood Needs to Answer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Washington, D.C. – Today, President Trump’s pick for IRS Chief Counsel, James Gadwood, will appear in front of the Senate Finance Committee for a nomination hearing. As a reminder, James Gadwood is a lawyer for the firm that represents Donald Trump. Not only that, he’s spent his career fighting the IRS on behalf of wealthy individuals and corporations. At a time when the IRS is increasingly being used as a political weapon against Trump’s enemies, Gadwood’s nomination represents a further effort by Trump to install loyalists he can bend to his will – with any American who questions their policies as their target.
James Gadwood needs to answer to the American people about his record and who he’ll work for if he is confirmed.
Here are five questions James Gadwood should answer:
#1: Have you ever performed legal work for President Trump, DJT Holdings, the Trump Organization, or any Trump family member or entity? Will you commit to recusing yourself from work for these entities if confirmed as IRS Chief Counsel?
Gadwood’s firm represents DJT Holdings LLC, President Trump’s holding company, in tax matters. When asked whether he had personally worked on the firm’s representation of the President, he did not respond.
#2: On May 2, 2025, President Trump posted: "We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!" Did that post violate the law?
Federal law, 26 U.S.C. § 7217, makes it a crime for the President or senior White House officials to request, directly or indirectly, that the IRS conduct or terminate an audit or investigation of any particular taxpayer.
#3: Do you think President Trump or his allies should be able to direct the IRS to investigate political enemies?
#4: Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order declaring the IRS "forever barred" from auditing President Trump, his family, and their affiliated businesses on any tax return already filed. Is that order lawful?
#5: In 2023 and 2024, you lobbied the IRS, the Treasury Department, the Energy Department, and the EPA to secure clean-energy tax credits for Hyzon Motors, which was at the time charged by the SEC for misleading investors. When you accepted that engagement, did you know your client was resolving federal securities-fraud charges?
The SEC alleged that Hyzon posted a video of a truck "purportedly running on hydrogen, when the vehicle was not equipped to operate on hydrogen power," and "falsely reported that it sold 87 FCEVs in 2021, when in fact it had not sold any vehicles that year." Hyzon paid a $25 million penalty, and Gadwood’s firm reported a $140,000 fee for the first quarter of 2024, the same quarter a federal court entered final judgment in the fraud case.
