President Donald Trump’s choice for Internal Revenue Service director just had his six-figure debt paid off by campaign donors whose firms have significant, often contentious business before the tax agency he would lead, according to federal records reviewed by The Lever.
The revelations come as lawmakers call for a criminal probe of how tax credits were used by these donors’ firms — many of which have previous ties to U.S. Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), Trump’s IRS nominee whose confirmation is pending in the Senate.
In new campaign finance filings, Long disclosed an outstanding personal loan of $130,000 that he had made to his failed 2022 U.S. Senate campaign. The dormant Senate campaign committee had raised less than $36,000 in the last two years, which could have forced Long to absorb the losses on the loan.
But after Trump named Long to head the IRS, the committee suddenly raked in nearly $137,000 in less than three weeks in January — money that Long then used to remunerate himself, according to disclosure documents filed this week.
“Making political contributions to aid Billy Long seems like a surefire way to ingratiate yourself with the man poised to lead the IRS, especially when we’re talking about contributions to help repay campaign debt that is just loans to the candidate himself and contributions to his leadership PAC,” said Michael Beckel, the senior research director of the campaign-finance reform organization Issue One, who first spotlighted the donations. “People often criticize campaign contributions for being legalized bribery, but in this case, we’re truly talking about money being given to Long to repay himself.”..