The Internal Revenue Service announced on Thursday that it has asked the Treasury Department’s internal tax watchdog to investigate claims that former FBI Director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe, two opponents of former President Donald Trump, were both subjected to uncommon and intensive IRS audits. However, the IRS has denied any wrongdoing.
Significant Information
To request an investigation, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig “personally reached out” to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, according to IRS spokesperson Jodie Reynolds’ response to Forbes on Thursday.
The IRS’s National Research Program, a famously rigorous procedure that is only employed on a small number of randomly chosen taxpayers each year, was used to audit both Comey and McCabe, according to a Wednesday New York Times report.
After President Joe Biden took office, but while Rettig—a Trump appointee whose five-year term began in 2018—was still in control of the IRS, Comey was reportedly chosen for an audit in 2019 and McCabe was chosen last year.
The Times argues that while there is no evidence yet that Comey or McCabe was specifically targeted, it is exceedingly unlikely that two former senior FBI executives would have been chosen for an auditing program that only involves roughly one in 30,000 taxpayers.
Reynolds asserted that it is “ludicrous and incorrect to suggest that top IRS employees in any way singled out particular taxpayers for National Research Program audits,” adding that the organization has “strong controls” in place to guard against politically-driven judgments.
Rettig “is not involved in individual audits,” the IRS added, and she has never discussed any particular taxpayers with the Trump or Biden White Houses, according to the Times.
Data on tax compliance are obtained by the IRS through National Research Program audits.
The IRS and Comey’s accountant reviewed his 2017 tax records for the program for more than a year, frequently going into minute detail about his costs, but the IRS eventually handed Comey and his wife a $347 tax refund, according to the Times.
For their part, McCabe and his wife’s 2019 taxes were audited but they didn’t get any fines or penalties, he told CNN on Wednesday. Instead, they had to pay the IRS a “little amount for an oversight.”
main critic
“Donald Trump has no respect for the rule of law, so if he tried to subject his political enemies to greater IRS inspection it would surprise no one,” said Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in a statement to the Washington Post.
Vital Background
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From 2013 through 2017, when he was controversially ousted by Trump four years into a ten-year tenure, Comey led the FBI.
Trump publicly resents Comey, who oversaw the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in support of Trump’s 2016 campaign and who, in Comey’s account, rejected Trump’s requests for “loyalty.”
Following Comey’s dismissal, the former FBI Deputy Director McCabe took over as the organization’s interim director.
However, Trump detested him for his ties to the Russia investigation, and in 2018, he too fired McCabe.
After McCabe sued, the Department of Justice decided to retroactively make him eligible for retirement benefits even though he had been fired the day before his pension was scheduled to start.
Trump-hating officials Comey and McCabe were both subject to thorough IRS audits.
At Forbes, I cover breaking news.
I received my degree from Tufts University in 2019. I previously covered local news in Boston.
