Former White House Chief of Staff Says Trump Wanted IRS to Investigate His Rivals: Report
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Mike Theiler-Pool/Getty John Kelly (left), Donald Trump
When former President Donald Trump had a problem with someone, he wasn't opposed to using the federal government to do his bidding. That's according to former Trump chief of staff John Kelly, who tells The New York Times in a new interview that Trump wanted to "get the IRS on" two of the people he viewed as enemies: former FBI Director James Comey and Comey's top deputy, Andy McCabe.
As Kelly explains to the Times, Trump spoke often about a desire to use the IRS to audit his enemies, including Comey, McCabe and others such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, and CIA Director John Brennan.
According to the Times, Kelly pushed back when asked about having Trump's political foes audited, allegedly telling the then-president: "The U.S. government, whether it's the IRS or the Justice Department, should never be weaponized or used to retaliate, and certainly not because someone criticizes you in the press or is your political opponent. The average federal employee or FBI agent or IRS agent goes to work and executes the laws and regulations and shouldn't be put in this position."
Still, Comey and McCabe were among the small percentage of people to be audited in recent years. Comey's audit began in 2019 and focused on his 2017 tax return. McCabe's audit began in 2021, nine months after Trump left office, and focused on his tax return for 2019. Both were launched by the agency run by Trump-appointed commissioner Charles Rettig.
Olivier Douliery - Pool/Getty; William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty
The audits reportedly didn't find anything improper, however. After their audit was complete, Comey and his wife were found to have overpaid their federal income tax and were refunded $347.
Trump's team has disputed the allegations, with spokeswoman Liz Harrington telling the Times: "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."
In an earlier statement, the IRS said it had "strong safeguards in place to protect the exam process — and against politically motivated audits."
"It's ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals for National Research Program audits," the IRS statement continued.
But the agency has also asked its inspector general to investigate the allegations.
Comey and McCabe were both frequent targets of Trump's ire.
After Comey was fired by Trump in 2017, an already underway investigation into the former president was only intensified. Following Comey's firing, McCabe temporarily stepped into his former boss's role at the FBI for a few months, and it was during this time that the bureau began investigating Trump for obstruction of justice.
Trump was vocal during this time about his distrust for the two men, often taking to social media to demand they be charged for what he considered to be personally motivated attacks against him.
As such, Comey's eyebrows raised at two former FBI leaders both being chosen at random within such a short period of time to be audited.
"I don't know whether anything improper happened, but after learning how unusual this audit was and how badly Trump wanted to hurt me during that time, it made sense to try to figure it out," said Comey.
He continued, "Maybe it's a coincidence or maybe somebody misused the IRS to get at a political enemy. Given the role Trump wants to continue to play in our country, we should know the answer to that question."
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Kelly suggests that it was no accident, telling the Times that Trump "initially thought" he would follow through on the request to have the men, and others, audited.
"If he told you to slit someone's throat, he thought you would go out and do it," Kelly told the Times.
But Kelly says he wouldn't.
"I would say, '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,'" Kelly told Trump, per the Times.
Trump's response was reportedly one of disbelief.
"Yeah, but they're writing bad things about me," Trump allegedly replied.
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As the Times notes, it is against federal law for any member of the executive branch "to request, directly or indirectly" that the IRS investigate or audit a taxpayer.
Trump is currently facing a large number of legal issues and being investigated at the federal and state level, in both criminal and civil cases, for a variety of allegations linked to presidential records, the 2020 election, sexual assault and business dealings at the Trump Organization.
