Senator Elizabeth Warren had IRS commissioner nominee Billy Long visibly shaken with a series of questions during his confirmation hearing Tuesday regarding the legality of Trump levying the IRS against nonprofit groups he doesn’t like.
“In the first place, he wouldn’t do that—”
“Are we on section 72-12 or 72-17?”
“Prohibits any member of the executive branch to request the IRS to conduct or terminate an audit on a taxpayer,” Long read aloud from the statue.
“I’m gonna follow the law, and if that’s the law yes.”
Long recited the statute again in response.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 20, 2025
“Is that a yes?” Warren pressed.
“Come on, you just read it!”
“Look, it says ‘it shall be unlawful for any applicable person’—which in this case includes the president—‘to request directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service to conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer.” Warren asked Long once again if what Trump has already threatened to do is illegal or not.
“Why are you not having the answer? You’ve had three weeks to consult with lawyers, the statute is about as clear as plain English—”
“Because I wanna make sure that you understand what the law says. If you think ‘follow the law’ means you just get to make it up on the spot, then you don’t get to be the IRS commissioner. The point here is to follow the law as it is written…. Can the president of the United States legally tell the IRS to change someone’s nonprofit status?”
Warren and Long continued to spar, with Warren getting more frustrated and Long getting more flustered as neither of them got anywhere with their questioning and Long refused to plainly state that he wouldn’t let his future boss force him to break the law.
"You shouldn't be within a thousand miles of the directorship of the IRS" -- Elizabeth Warren grilled IRS commissioner nominee Billy Long so hard that he was left stammering and shaking by the end of her questioning pic.twitter.com/yXWlkClj8l
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 20, 2025Trump has repeatedly threatened to strip universities like Harvard of their nonprofit status. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are working to give him more power to kill just about any nonprofit he disagrees with .
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