IRS chief asks watchdog to probe rare tax audits of Trump foes Comey and McCabe


Former FBI Director James Comey (2nd L) arrives on Capitol Hill for a closed listening to earlier than the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC on December 7, 2018. 

Alex Edelman | AFP | Getty Images

The head of the IRS has requested the Treasury Department’s inside watchdog to examine the company’s tax audits of two males who’ve been frequent targets of criticism from former President Donald Trump: ex-FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

The inquiry requested of Treasury’s inspector basic was introduced Thursday, a day after The New York Times reported that each Comey and McCabe had been topic to the extraordinarily rare audits.

Comey was audited for his federal tax returns for 2017 and 2019, in accordance to the Times. McCabe was audited for his 2019 federal tax return.

Trump, who appointed present IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to his put up, served as president from January 2017 by means of January 2021.

The Times famous that solely about one out of 30,600 tax filers had been audited for his or her 2017 returns. The IRS’s information e-book says that for all returns filed for the tax years 2011 by means of 2019, simply 0.55% of particular person returns had been audited.

Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017 because the bureau was investigating attainable ties between members of Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign and Russia. McCabe, who turned appearing FBI director, himself was fired in March 2018 by Trump’s then-attorney basic, Jeff Sessions, simply days earlier than McCabe was set to retire and grow to be eligible for full pension advantages.

McCabe on Wednesday night time referred to as for an investigation of the audits throughout an interview on CNN, the place he’s a legislation enforcement analyst.

“It simply defies logic to suppose that there wasn’t another issue concerned,” McCabe stated, referring to the concept audit targets are chosen randomly. Both McCabe and Comey had been informed in letters that their

“I feel that is an inexpensive query,” McCabe stated. “I feel it needs to be investigated. People want to find a way to belief the establishments of authorities and in order that’s why there needs to be some we must always dig by means of this and discover out what occurred.”

Former appearing FBI director Andrew McCabe speaks throughout a discussion board on election safety titled, “2020 Vision: Intelligence and the U.S. Presidential Election” on the National Press Club in Washington, October 30, 2019.

Joshua Roberts | Reuters

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