Trump White House official John Kelly claimed that then-President Donald Trump wanted fired FBI Director James Comey and fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe investigated by the IRS.
The comments from Kelly come after revelations this summer that Comey was informed in 2019 that he had been picked to have his 2017 tax returns examined by the IRS, while McCabe was informed in 2021 (when Trump was already out of office) that his 2019 returns would be scrutinized by the federal agency, according to the New York Times in July.
Kelly, chief of staff from July 2017 through the first couple of days of 2019, told the outlet recently that Comey and McCabe were among those whom Trump argued that “we ought to investigate” and “get the IRS on.”
IRS REQUESTS WATCHDOG REVIEW OF COMEY AND MCCABE TAX AUDITS
EX-FBI LEADERS COMEY AND MCCABE FACED IRS AUDITS
The IRS says the audits are random and denies that they were politically motivated, and Trump said he had no knowledge of the audits, but the fact that two former high-level FBI officials reviled by Trump were selected led to questions about the program.
Kelly claims he told Trump that “it’s inappropriate, it’s illegal, it’s against their integrity, and the IRS knows what it’s doing, and it’s not a good idea.” He claims Trump responded, “Yeah, but they’re writing bad things about me.”
Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington rejected Kelly’s claims, saying: “It’s total fiction created by a psycho, John Kelly, who never said this before, and made it up just because he’s become so irrelevant.”
Kelly said he came forward now following claims made by Trump last week related to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), widely seen as a possible rival for the GOP’s 2024 nomination. Trump claimed on Truth Social on Thursday that “I sent in the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys” into Florida to help DeSantis during his first bid in 2018, a claim for which there is no evidence.
The outlet reported that the former Trump chief of staff told them that “no such request had been made to the Justice Department or the FBI.”
Asked by the New York Times to respond to the news of the audits this summer, Trump said through a spokesperson that “I have no knowledge of this.”
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, selected by Trump and kept on by Biden, rejected being involved in the Comey-McCabe audits.
“Commissioner Rettig is not involved in individual audits or taxpayer cases; those are handled by career civil servants,” the IRS said in a statement. “As IRS commissioner, he has never been in contact with the White House — in either administration — on IRS enforcement or individual taxpayer matters. He has been committed to running the IRS in an impartial, unbiased manner from top to bottom.”
These IRS National Research Program audits pick taxpayers via a statistical software program that “does not entail employees manually selecting individuals for examination,” the agency said.
“Audits are handled by career civil servants, and the IRS has strong safeguards in place to protect the exam process — and against politically motivated audits,” the statement continued. “It’s ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals for National Research Program audits.”
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A Treasury Department watchdog spokesperson said Rettig “personally reached out” to the inspector general “after receiving a press inquiry.”
“The IRS has referred the matter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration for review,” the IRS told the Washington Examiner in July.
