Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday accused the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of targeting him with a politically motivated audit in the last days of the Biden regime, calling the move a “total sham.”
“Of course the outgoing Biden IRS rushed an ‘audit’ of the incoming SecDef,” Hegseth wrote on his official X account, adding: “Total sham.”
Hegseth included a photo of an IRS document stating that he and his wife Jennifer owed the government $33,558.16.
The IRS said the sum needed to be paid immediately to avoid further penalties.
“The party of ‘norms’ and ‘decency’ strikes again. We will never back down,” Hegseth wrote in his post.
Commenting on the Defense Secretary’s post, DOGE chief Elon Musk wrote:
“They love the low blows.”
Hegseth was confirmed (51-50) as secretary of defense on January 24 with the help of Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote.
While the details of the IRS case against Hegseth remain sketchy, the incident is reminiscent of how the IRS was weaponized against political enemies during the Obama era.
Beginning in 2010, the IRS began targeting conservatives groups for audits and excessive tax-exempt scrutiny.
The IRS and FBI improperly targeted conservative nonprofit groups for special scrutiny ahead of the 2012 general election.
The IRS essentially stopped processing applications for 501(c)(4) tax-exemption status received from organizations with “Tea Party,” “patriots,” or “9/12” in their names.
During the same time period, the agency approved applications from several dozen liberal-leaning organizations whose names included terms such as “progressive,” “progress,” “liberal,” or “equality.
