To: Interested Parties
From: Americans Against Government Censorship
Subject: Holding Government Accountable Requires Investigating IRS Weaponization
Americans Against Government Censorship (AAGC) was founded to defend nonprofits – serving communities across the country – from the Trump administration’s weaponization of government. Democrats will now take control of the House and Senate, driven by an electorate appalled by the scope and scale of the President’s corruption, and AAGC is ready to support a proactive agenda that investigates and exposes the misuse of government power, connects individual instances of weaponization to broader patterns, and translates those findings into recommendations for congressional action.
A mandate to take on affordability and corruption
Americans Against Government Censorship (AAGC) applauds the incoming House majority’s commitment to investigating the misuse of government power and putting the interests of Americans ahead of those of the well-connected.
In CNN’s 2026 voter poll, 90% of voters said government corruption was crucial or a major factor in their vote for Congress, and 89% said the same about the cost of living. Democrats rightly connected those two dots on affordability and corruption, tying working people’s struggle to afford a world that has steadily gotten more expensive with a government in Washington that is consumed by corruption.
That dual argument, tying politicians focused on pursuing their self-enrichment at the expense of working families, resonated with a public already skeptical of whose interests Washington serves. Guardian/Harris poll found that 76% of voters believed elected officials care more about enriching themselves than improving the economy for ordinary people. With Democrats set to take control of Congress, the incoming majority has a mandate to turn that campaign focus into a governing approach that investigates those abuses and advances an agenda that stops government weaponization and puts working people first.
Supporting a broad accountability agenda
Reps. Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin have helped steer House Democrats’ oversight planning through their leadership on the Oversight and Judiciary Committees. Their priorities include examining Trump family business dealings, alleged corporate corruption, the politicization of law enforcement, and allegations that money and connections have influenced presidential pardons and government decisions.
Garcia and Raskin have also joined Rep. Joe Morelle in introducing the Protecting Our Democracy Act, which includes provisions addressing exchanges of money or gifts for political favors, pardons, or appointments. This focus on the Trump administration’s pay-to-play schemes is an important part of an oversight agenda, with clear examples to pursue:
Extremity Care’s $5 million contribution to MAGA inc. before the administration delayed a Medicare rule affecting its products
$35 million in contributions to MAGA inc. from Crypto.com and its parent alongside favorable administration intervention in litigation involving the company.
Paul Walczak’s pardon less than three weeks after his mother attended a $1 million-per-person Trump fundraiser.
And Trevor Milton’s pardon after he and his wife contributed $1.8 million to a Trump reelection fund.
Simultaneously, we urge the incoming majority to make an additional area of potential abuse a clear oversight priority: the White House’s political interference in tax administration. It will be impossible for the Majority to fully hold the government accountable for how it has weaponized the government without clear investigations into this administration’s recasting of the IRS as a political tool which it has wielded both to enrich the President and his allies and silence perceived opponents.
A crucial focus: Investigate the weaponization of the Internal Revenue Service
Congress must examine how the White House, Treasury Department, Justice Department, or political appointees sought to influence IRS enforcement against perceived opponents, such as efforts by Republican lawmakers urging Trump political appointees to direct the IRS to revoke tax status for nonprofits like the Southern Poverty Law Center, calls by President and others for universities like Harvard to lose their tax-exempt status, and plots in motion from the White House to revoke the tax status of nonprofits the administration views as their political enemies. These efforts also come amid reports that a senior Treasury and IRS official was ousted after raising alarms that the White House push to weaponize tax enforcement violated federal law.
And while it is a different brand of a corrupted government, Congress should also scrutinize the IRS settlement and related order purporting to shield Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization from audits of previously filed tax returns, including the arrangement’s legal authority, fiscal consequences, and implications for equal treatment under the law.
Fair and neutral tax administration -- from proper enforcement to a level playing field for all taxpayers -- is one of the baselines of how our government must treat all Americans the same regardless of their political connections or political beliefs. The wealthy and well-connected cannot be allowed to play by a different set of rules, and political leaders shouldn’t be able to use the levers of power to enrich themselves or target their opponents.
Where that focus starts
Relevant committees should establish a coordinated investigation into the origin, handling, and disposition of politically sensitive tax-enforcement requests. That inquiry should secure communications and decision records, obtain testimony from responsible officials, and seek an independent review by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Committees should use compulsory processes where necessary to overcome noncompliance.
This investigation will expose the depths of the White House’s attempts to weaponize the IRS against their political enemies, as well as corrupt it to protect their allies – making the case for strengthening the due process guardrails for nonprofits and establishing enforceable safeguards separating political officials from individual tax-enforcement decisions.
AAGC’s record: From exposing abuses to advancing safeguards
AAGC partners with congressional leaders to expose government abuse, communicate its dangers, and advance protections against political retaliation. Our work is grounded in a simple principle: government power must serve the American people, not a president’s political interests. Laws must be enforced impartially—from DOJ prosecutions and IRS actions to FEMA relief—and political support must not buy preferential treatment.
Over the past two years, AAGC has helped block the “nonprofit killer” framework from the House reconciliation package, partnered with Nonprofits Together and Ranking Member Joe Morelle to document the Trump administration’s targeting of nonprofits, and supported the PROOF Act to strengthen due-process protections, along with other anti-weaponization legislative proposals. Together, these efforts defended everyday Americans from the Trump administration’s weaponization of government and lay the groundwork for further oversight and legislative action to ensure no president – Republican or Democrat – can turn the government into a weapon against their perceived political enemies.
