Pete Hegseth accuses Biden, IRS of politically motivated move to rush his tax audit
WASHINGTON − Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused former President Joe Biden's administration of rushing an audit of his taxes for political reasons, amid a push by the Elon Musk and his aides to gain access to taxpayers' sensitive IRS data.
"Of course the outgoing Biden IRS rushed an 'audit' of the incoming SecDef. Total sham," Hegseth wrote on X on Monday. "The party of 'norms' and 'decency' strikes again. We will never back down."
Hegseth also posted a picture of what appeared to be a notice showing he and his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, owe $33,558.16 in taxes.
Musk responded to Hegseth's post, writing "They love the low blows."
The Department of Defense and IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Elon Musk, DOGE seek access to sensitive IRS data
Hegseth's allegation comes as Musk, who was President Donald Trump's top campaign donor, and his Department of Government Agency are seeking to access internal IRS computer systems that hold troves of taxpayers' personal data and collection information.
The Trump administration has argued that DOGE, whose stated mission is to root out government waste and drastically cut federal spending, needs access to the systems to search for tax fraud. But administration officials have yet to provide evidence of fraud beyond the billions of dollars the IRS already identifies every year.
"There's no way to know until DOGE gains full access exactly how much money we're talking about," Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, told Fox News.
Accusations against both the Biden and Trump administrations for auditing political enemies popped up in recent years.
Hunter Biden, FBI leaders
Last spring, Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden unsuccessfully argued the charges he faced for failing to pay more than $1.4 million to the IRS were political and "would not have been filed against anyone else." Joe Biden later pardoned him of all the charges shortly before leaving office.
Under Biden, the IRS asked a government watchdog to review two abnormally invasive tax audits that it launched into former FBI officials James Comey and Andrew McCabe while it was led by a Trump appointee. Comey, who headed the FBI under Trump, and McCabe, who took over as acting director after his firing, were both hit with extremely rare tax audits after they drew Trump's political ire, the New York Times first reported.