IRS has frequently been used as a tool to go after political opponents.
> Or some people try to politicize their tax dodging when they get caught.
I don't see why that has to be an "or." the statements are not mutually exclusive (i.e. they can both be simultaneously true)
and Historically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_allegations_of_misuse_...
For those here who are young and haven't had an exposure to this process outside of meme sites: an IRS audit is indeed a big pain in the ass. But as political oppression, it's pretty weak sauce. It's not like we're deploying novichok in the service of tax collection.
Through just relentless bad faith and a bottomless victim complex, the Republican House committees spent years insisting that Obama was targeting them, by literally restricting the IRS audit to only the right leaning lists and then presenting the IG results as comprehensive: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/154584-ig-audit-of-irs-ac...