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 then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Wyden about the “bombshell” ProPublica report, arguing that the report demonstrated “how the nation’s wealthiest individuals are using a series of legal tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of income taxes” and calling for an investigation. 

However, just a few years later, Warren and Wyden are deeply concerned about DOGE potentially accessing private IRS data as it works through the agency to eliminate wasteful governance.

The pair wrote a Monday letter to acting IRS Administrator Douglas O’Donnell to demand answers about a possible memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the White House and the IRS that would allow DOGE employees to access various IRS data, including the agency’s Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS).

“It appears the MOU proposes giving DOGE team members access to the IRS Integrated Data Retrieval System, raising serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda,” the three senators wrote. “The IRS must immediately disclose to the Senate Committee on Finance the full extent of the potential access to IRS systems and data granted to DOGE team members so that the Committee can address any efforts by DOGE personnel to gain access to taxpayer records at the IRS, which may constitute criminal violations of federal privacy laws.”

For his part, Whitehouse wrote that “the American people for decades have demanded strict privacy for their tax records” in a Monday post to X addressing DOGE’s arrival at IRS, further suggesting that it could be inappropriate or illegal for “Musk-rats” to access private taxpayer information.

While former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn was eventually charged and sentenced to five years in prison for leaking the private data to ProPublica and the NYT, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith wrote then-IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel in January 2024 to express concern that the Biden IRS was not following through sufficiently to protect taxpayers against future unauthorized leaks of private information after the two major disclosures.

Littlejohn was also responsible for the Trump tax return leaks obtained by The New York Times for its 2020 story on the president’s personal finances, disclosures that were also included in the purview of the government’s case against him.

“The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes,” reads the Times piece. “Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president.”

As with the case with ProPublica’s reporting on the leaked taxpayer information, Warren and other Democrats leveraged the NYT story to grandstand about the need for tax reform in the U.S. because “the Donald Trumps of the world” have essentially rigged it to their permanent and unjust advantage. The offices of Wyden, Warren and Whitehouse did not respond to requests for comment.

“The problem here is that the system itself is broken, and you’ve got to ask why,” Warren told CNBC shortly after the NYT published the story. “And you want to know why? The reason is because of the Donald Trumps of the world, the people who have used their money and used their influence to get Congress to keep rewriting those laws.”

“It’s not just that Donald Trump doesn’t pay taxes, it’s that somebody else has to pay to keep this country going,” Warren added in her CNBC interview. “Nurses pay a big share, teachers pay a big share, grocery store clerks pay a big share, and Donald Trump just pays a tiny little bit.”

Wyden, meanwhile, called Trump a “tax cheat” in a comment to Politico following the NYT’s report on Trump’s taxes, though he did not specify policy proposals to alter the tax code.

“Funding key priorities for middle-class families like health care depends on cracking down on wealthy tax cheats like Donald Trump, and that will be one of my top priorities if Democrats retake the Senate,” Wyden told Politico in the wake of the NYT’s story.

Featured Image Credit: Carol M. Highsmith