Up here in New Hampshire, we call this a public service announcement with sawdust. Donald Trump grabs the IRS log, fires up the chipper, and suddenly the Concord Monitor reporter acts like democracy itself just got mulched. Relax, counselor. It’s not the Constitution going through the chute — it’s bureaucracy, audit notices, and a few thousand pounds of federal red tape.
The IRS Leak Scandal: When the Watchdog Starts Stealing Mail
There are some stories where the truth sits right on the front porch, wearing boots, waving a flag, and holding a lantern.
Then the Concord Monitor walks by, looks at the lantern, and declares the real problem is Donald Trump’s shadow.
That, in plain English, is what happened with the latest handwringing over President Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department. The Monitor’s angle is predictable enough to set your kitchen clock by it: Trump is corrupt, Trump is greedy, Trump is suing “himself,” Trump wants taxpayers to pay him because the country learned he used legal tax deductions.
All very dramatic.
Also very convenient.
Because the real story is not complicated. A former IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, illegally accessed and leaked confidential tax records. Not just Trump’s. Thousands upon thousands of taxpayers were caught in the dragnet. He was prosecuted. He pleaded guilty. He went to federal prison.
That is not a rumor from a guy at the feed store. That is a federal criminal case.
Yet somehow, in the strange moral weather system of modern Democrat politics, the convicted leaker becomes a footnote, the embarrassed taxpayer becomes the villain, and the IRS — the agency entrusted with every American’s private financial life — gets treated like an innocent bystander who merely misplaced a lunchbox.
Marvelous. Washington breaks the window. Concord blames the homeowner for noticing the draft.
The core law here is 26 U.S.C. § 6103, which says taxpayer returns and return information are confidential. That law exists because your tax return is not a newspaper insert. It is not campaign literature. It is not a party favor for bureaucrats, contractors, activists, reporters, or anyone else with a political itch they cannot stop scratching.
And when that law is violated, 26 U.S.C. § 7431 provides a path for damages.
That is the foundation of Trump’s lawsuit. The case argues that the IRS and Treasury failed to protect confidential tax information from a contractor who had access to sensitive data and leaked it to media outlets. Trump’s legal team is asking for damages based on the alleged unauthorized disclosures and the resulting harm.
Now, reasonable people can debate the size of the lawsuit. Ten billion dollars is not exactly coffee money. That number could choke a horse and make the horse call its accountant.
A judge can examine the damages. A judge can examine the conflict-of-interest questions created by Trump being president while suing agencies within the executive branch. A judge can decide whether the case proceeds, settles, shrinks, or gets tossed into the legal wood chipper.
That is what courts are for.
But none of that changes the central fact: confidential taxpayer information was stolen and leaked.
The Monitor and its Democrat chorus would rather talk about everything else. Trump’s business empire. Trump’s taxes. Trump’s sons. Trump’s politics. Trump’s personality. Trump’s breakfast cereal, probably, if they thought they could squeeze “authoritarianism” into the milk.
But here is the hard question they keep dodging:
Should the IRS be allowed to fail at protecting private taxpayer information when the target is politically unpopular?
That is the issue.
Not whether Trump paid too little under a tax code Congress wrote.
Not whether Democrat columnists feel personally offended by depreciation schedules.
Not whether real estate losses make good bedtime reading.
The issue is whether the federal government can be trusted with the financial details of American citizens.
If the answer is “only when Democrats approve of the taxpayer,” then we no longer have equal justice. We have selective justice with a press pass.
And that is where the sarcasm stops being funny.
Because today it is Trump. Tomorrow it could be a gun shop owner. A church. A conservative nonprofit. A small business owner who donated to the wrong candidate. A parent who criticized a school board. A citizen in Claremont, Concord, Keene, Berlin, or Manchester who suddenly discovers that privacy rights are very negotiable when the government does not like your politics.
The Democrat Party keeps telling us democracy is in danger. Then they cheer, excuse, or downplay the abuse of federal power when the target is Donald Trump.
Funny how that works.
Apparently, democracy is sacred right up until an IRS file can be weaponized against the orange man. Then democracy gets shoved into the coat closet while the usual suspects pour coffee and call it accountability.
The Monitor’s argument also leans on the tired old “Trump paid little or no federal income tax in certain years” routine. That may outrage people, and in ordinary life it certainly sounds strange to a working man who gets taxes pulled from his paycheck before he even sees it. But legal deductions are not illegal conduct.
Congress wrote the tax code. Developers use depreciation. Businesses carry forward losses. Accountants apply deductions. If Democrats hate those rules, they have had plenty of chances to rewrite them.
But they rarely do. Why?
Because the same tax code that gives them campaign slogans also keeps their donor class comfortable. Washington loves loopholes the way raccoons love trash barrels. They complain about the mess while dining in it.
So instead of reforming the code, they aim the outrage at Trump. Easier. Louder. Better for fundraising.
But here is the truth underneath all the political theater:
A legal tax return is private.
An illegal leak is a crime.
The IRS had a duty to protect the information.
And the public has a right to demand accountability.
That should not be controversial. In a sane country, Republicans, Democrats, independents, libertarians, and the fellow down the road who only votes when he is mad enough should all agree on this.
But sanity left the building somewhere around the time the media decided that “government leaks private tax records” was less troubling than “Trump objects.”
The Concord Monitor’s framing is not journalism. It is partisan storytelling with a legal dictionary nearby for decoration. It takes a government breach and tries to turn it into another morality play about Trump being the villain in every scene.
The house burns down.
The fire marshal finds gasoline.
The Monitor writes a column about Trump’s curtains.
That is the level of seriousness we are dealing with.
And the Democrat Party? They should be careful here. Very careful. Because the precedent they excuse today may be the precedent that eats them tomorrow. Government power does not stay loyal. It changes hands. It grows teeth. It develops habits.
Once taxpayer privacy becomes optional, nobody is safe.
The IRS is one of the most powerful agencies in America. It can audit you, fine you, seize assets, garnish wages, and bury ordinary citizens in paperwork until their kitchen table looks like a legal landfill. If that agency cannot secure confidential records, then accountability is not optional. It is mandatory.
This is the basic bargain of citizenship: we comply with the law, and the government follows the law too.
That bargain collapses when federal agencies become political instruments, and when the press corps acts less like watchdogs and more like unpaid campaign staff.
The Monitor wants people to see Trump’s lawsuit as corruption.
A more honest view is this: the lawsuit is a test.
A test of whether taxpayer privacy still means anything.
A test of whether government agencies can be held responsible when they fail.
A test of whether the rule of law applies even when the injured party is Donald J. Trump.
Because if constitutional rights, statutory protections, and privacy laws only protect people the Concord Monitor likes, then they are not rights at all. They are coupons. Redeemable only with the proper politics.
That is not America.
That is bureaucratic tribalism in a cheap suit.
Bottom Line
Trump’s lawsuit may be large. It may be legally complicated. It may face serious questions because he is now president.
Fine. Let the courts sort that out.
But do not let the Concord Monitor or the Democrat Party bury the real scandal under another steaming pile of Trump hysteria.
The scandal is this:
A federal contractor stole confidential taxpayer information.
The IRS failed to stop it.
The data of many Americans was compromised.
And the media wants you angry at the man whose records were leaked.
That is not accountability.
That is the swamp turning the sprinkler on itself and calling it rain.
Biblical tie-in: “Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.” — Proverbs 20:10, KJV. One standard under law means privacy must be defended even when the victim is someone the political class despises.
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Disagree, agree, Got Something to Say, We Want to Hear It. Comment or submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
