Kies reportedly warned White House that influencing taxpayer audits would breach federal law
Kenneth Kies, a longtime Washington tax lobbyist who was confirmed to lead the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy in June 2025, also served as acting chief counsel to the IRS before leaving the Trump administration earlier this month, the Associated Press reported. MSI previously reported that Kies was leaving the Treasury Department and IRS after disputes with the White House.
On Tuesday, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other members of the committee sent a letter to Heather M. Hill, the Treasury’s acting inspector general for tax administration, asking her office to investigate the circumstances of Kies’s departure. The lawmakers wrote that Kies was forced out after “raising concerns about those potential violations” of a federal law that prohibits political interference in tax enforcement. The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Kies had warned political officials they risked breaching that law by starting or stopping audits or investigations for political reasons.