Topline
The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday it has asked the Treasury Department’s internal tax watchdog to look into reports former FBI Director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe, two foes of former President Donald Trump, were both subjected to rare and intensive IRS audits—but the IRS has denied any wrongdoing.
Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to members of the media at the Rayburn House Office Building … [+]
Key Facts
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig “personally reached out” to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to request an investigation, IRS spokesperson Jodie Reynolds wrote in a Thursday statement to Forbes.
The New York Times reported Wednesday both Comey and McCabe were audited through the IRS’s National Research Program, a notoriously intense process only used on several thousand randomly selected taxpayers per year.
Comey was reportedly chosen for an audit in 2019, and McCabe was selected last year, after President Joe Biden took office but while Rettig—a Trump appointee whose five-year term started in 2018—was still in charge of the IRS.
No evidence has emerged to suggest Comey or McCabe were deliberately targeted, but the Times notes the probability of two former senior FBI leaders being selected for an auditing program only used on about one in 30,000 taxpayers is extremely low.
Reynolds said it is “ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals for National Research Program audits,” adding the agency has “strong safeguards” to prevent politically motivated decisions.
The IRS also told the Times Rettig “is not involved in individual audits” and has never spoken with the Trump or Biden White House about specific taxpayers.
Tangent
The IRS uses National Research Program audits to get data on tax compliance. As part of the program, Comey’s accountant and the IRS spent over a year reviewing his 2017 tax documents, often drilling into minute details about his expenses, but the IRS eventually gave Comey and his wife a $347 tax refund, the Times reported. McCabe and his wife, for their part, had to pay the IRS a “small amount for an oversight” after their 2019 returns were audited, but they weren’t subjected to any fines or penalties, he told CNN on Wednesday.
Chief Critic
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called for an investigation in a statement to the Washington Post: “Donald Trump has no respect for the rule of law, so if he tried to subject his political enemies to additional IRS scrutiny that would surprise no one.”
Key Background
Comey served as FBI director from 2013 to 2017, when he was controversially fired by Trump four years into a decade-long term. Trump openly resents Comey, who led the FBI while it investigated Russian meddling to benefit Trump’s 2016 campaign, and who—according to Comey’s telling—rebuffed Trump’s demands for “loyalty.” Former FBI Deputy Director McCabe served as the agency’s interim head after Comey’s firing, but he was also hated by Trump for his links to the Russia probe and was himself fired in 2018. McCabe was dismissed just one day before his pension was set to kick in, but the Department of Justice agreed to retroactively make him eligible for retirement benefits last year after McCabe sued.
Further Reading
Comey and McCabe, Who Infuriated Trump, Both Faced Intensive I.R.S. Audits (New York Times)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/07/07/audits-of-trump-foes-comey-and-mccabe-under-scrutiny-by-watchdog-irs-says/