Recalling the scandalous Obama-era IRS targeting of tea party organizers, a legal watchdog has gone to court to demand that the tax agency reveal if it is back in the spying business — this time on Jan. 6 Capitol riot participants and supporters.
In a newly revealed lawsuit, Washington-based Judicial Watch speculated that the IRS targeted those involved in a possible punishment over President Donald Trump’s promise of sweeping pardons for hundreds of rioters who halted the Electoral College election process of Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.
JW v. IRS Jan 6 Complaint 01290 by web-producers
The filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia came after the IRS failed to respond to a Jan. 22, 2025, Freedom of Information Act request for the records of IRS officials, including former Commissioner Daniel Werfel, acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell, Chief Tax Compliance Officer Heather Maloy, and others.
That request asked for documents that mentioned the Trump pardons. In the new suit, Judicial Watch asked for records that included the terms “Trump,” “pardon,” “pardons,” “pardoned,” “commutation,” “commuted,” “January 6,” or “1-6.”
Hundreds were arrested and charged in the riots, most for trespassing, but a few for violence. Trump campaigned on a promise to pardon all of those charged. He issued his main pardon on Inauguration Day.
Judicial Watch did not offer evidence that the IRS has been targeting the rioters, but it noted that the agency wasn’t truthful about its efforts against the tea party, which the legal watchdog also probed.
Over a year ago, there were reports that Democrats were demanding IRS investigations of Jan. 6 rioters.
“The IRS has a demonstrated record, as proven by Judicial Watch, of abusing taxpayers at the behest of politicians,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “The IRS obviously has the January 6 documents — so, why the cover-up?”
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Fitton limited the search period from Dec. 1, 2024, to Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
He asked for the following: “All emails or other records of communication … regarding the actual or proposed examination or audit of any return or other tax filing submitted by, or on behalf of, any of the individuals pardoned, or whose sentences were commuted, by the presidential proclamation ‘Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offences Relating to the Events at or Near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.’
