Treasury appointee tried to interfere with Trump or Pence's tax return audit, new whistleblower reportedly alleges

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

published 3 October 2019

There's a new whistleblower in town, and they've reportedly got tax return dirt.

An IRS official says they were told a Treasury Department appointee tried to "improperly interfere" with an audit of President Trump or Vice President Mike Pence's tax returns. That's according to multiple people familiar with a whistleblower report the appointee filed — and there's a chance the new report might become public, The Washington Post reports.

White House officials have "dismissed the whistleblower's complaint as flimsy because it is based on conversations with other government officials," the Post writes. But congressional Democrats are reportedly sending it around Capitol Hill, have "flagged it for a federal judge," and are talking about making it public, the Post continues. It's an especially volatile topic for the Democrats considering their longstanding demands for Trump's tax returns and his constant refusal to turn them over.

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This second whistleblower has been publicly known to exist for months, though this is the first time it's been reported that they're a career IRS official, and that they're alleging a Treasury official interfered with the audit process. Talk of this IRS whistleblower has heightened after an intelligence whistleblower alleged Trump pushed Ukraine's president to investigate the Biden family for his political gain, prompting an official impeachment investigation into the president.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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