Democrats have scored political points in the past with leaked tax returns, but they are suddenly concerned about the prospect of Elon Musk and his team having access to private taxpayer information in their examination of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse and Ron Wyden have variously seized on a 2020 New York Times story exposing former President Donald Trump’s leaked tax returns as well as a 2021 ProPublica investigation into the tax affairs of the uber rich, with both reports utilizing leaked private IRS information. However, the three Senate Democrats are now deeply worried that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees may improperly access and utilize taxpayer data for political purposes as they set out to target potential waste, fraud and abuse at the IRS.
Warren and Whitehouse subsequently wrote…
