As covered by major outlets — including ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, The New York Times, Politico, Reuters, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post — the person in charge of the Internal Revenue Service announced that she will resign.

The announcement followed the disclosure of a secret deal between Donald Trump’s sycophantic Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, and Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem (former governor of South Dakota and self-professed dog killer) for confidential taxpayer info to be handed over to immigration enforcement agents.

How did this unprecedented, illegal, and totalitarian plot come to light? Because the Trump regime disclosed it in court papers they filed as part of a lawsuit from Public Citizen to prevent them from violating the privacy of American taxpayers.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this only affects undocumented workers. Here’s what I told the national news media following the announcement that acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause will be resigning:

“Our laws were intended to keep taxpayer data confidential. This backroom deal by Secretary Bessent and Secretary Noem, partly disclosed in a court filing, violates those laws. The Trump administration’s political efforts to use immigrants’ tax data against them should send chills down the spine of every U.S. taxpayer who disagrees with this administration. Undermining the legal protections for sensitive taxpayer information is dangerous, and Krause’s resignation signals the severity of this unconscionable move by the Trump administration.”

This is one of nine active lawsuits (so far) that Public Citizen is pursuing against the regime since Trump returned to power. If the cases are starting to blur together, don’t worry — you don’t have to read every email or keep track of all the ins and outs. We will keep sending updates so you have at least an overall sense of how we’re fighting back against the Trump/Musk/DOGE/MAGA onslaught.

Please see our earlier note — copied below in case you missed it — for more about this particular case.

Onward!

Lisa

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Public Citizen is suing the Trump regime over one of the many insidious parts of its inhumane mass deportation scheme.

• Like other workers, undocumented workers are required to pay income taxes.

• The IRS is legally required to treat their tax records, like those of every other taxpayer, as private and confidential — unless disclosure is specifically allowed by law.

• No law permits the IRS to disclose tax records for immigration enforcement purposes.

• But the Trump regime nonetheless wants to access tax data — including names, current addresses, and information about dependents — to support its mass deportation agenda.

• This lawsuit seeks to ensure that the IRS protects taxpayer privacy, as required by law.

This lawsuit is not just about the rights of undocumented workers.

Congress enacted taxpayer privacy laws in response to misuse of IRS records during the presidency of Richard Nixon. If the Trump regime is allowed to carry out this particular invasion of taxpayer privacy — in flagrant violation of the law — it won’t stop there. Before you know it, millions and millions of Americans could be subject to illegal invasions of privacy and government surveillance.

It’s a page right out of the authoritarian playbook.

If you can, please donate today to support Public Citizen’s work standing up to the Trump regime.

Anything you can chip in — $5 or $25, $50 or $100, $500 or even more — will help at such a critical moment.

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For justice,

- Lisa Gilbert & Robert Weissman, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen
 
 
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