Donald Alexander (lawyer)

Donald Alexander
Alexander in 1976
Commissioner of Internal Revenue
In office
May 25, 1973 – February 26, 1977
PresidentRichard Nixon
Preceded byJohnnie Mac Walters
Succeeded byJerome Kurtz
Personal details
BornDonald Crichton Alexander
(1921-05-22)May 22, 1921
DiedFebruary 2, 2009(2009-02-02) (aged 87)
EducationYale College
Harvard Law School
OccupationTax lawyer
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Battles/warsWorld War II
AwardsBronze Star Medal
Silver Star

Donald Crichton Alexander (May 22, 1921 – February 2, 2009) was an American tax lawyer and Nixon administration official.[1]

Education and military career

Alexander served in the Army in World War II, receiving the Bronze Star and the Silver Star.[2][1] He graduated from Yale College and Harvard Law School.[1][2]

Political career

Alexander began his career as a tax lawyer, which included positions at Covington & Burling and Akin Gump, where he worked until he died of cancer.[1][2]

Alexander was appointed Commissioner of Internal Revenue by President Richard Nixon in May 1973, and was replaced in February 1977, early in the Jimmy Carter administration.[1]

Nixon administration and controversy

Alexander resisted attempts by Nixon to use the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate Nixon's political enemies, resulting in a string of attempts by Nixon to fire him. Early on in his tenure as Commissioner, he dismantled the IRS Special Service Staff, which had been used to pursue detractors of the administration and its policies in Vietnam.[1] Alexander ended a special unit of the IRS, the Special Services Staff, which Nixon had created to target activists and political dissidents.[3][4]

Alexander advocated for stronger tax confidentiality laws.[5]

There exists controversy over how Alexander used his position as IRS Commissioner to attack internal efforts at the IRS at uncovering tax evasion and tax fraud. [6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Johnston, David Cay (8 February 2009). "Donald C. Alexander, 87, Who Resisted Nixon at I.R.S., Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 "Donald C. Alexander". Associated Press. 2009.
  3. ↑ "Factbox: IRS's rich history of scandals, political abuse". Reuters. 2013.
  4. ↑ "TAXES: The IRS's $287 Billion Man". TIME. 1975.
  5. ↑ "In Memoriam: Recalling Lives of Note". ABC News. 2009.
  6. ↑ Winters, Jeffrey A. (2026). The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracies. Scribner. ISBN 9781668221532.
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