Ex-FBI Directors Comey and McCabe faced IRS audits
Two top former FBI officials were selected to undergo rare and intensive Internal Revenue Service audits during the Trump administration.
Former FBI Director James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who served as acting director for several months after Comey was fired, were picked to have their 2017 and 2019 tax returns audited, respectively, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Comey and his wife, Patrice Comey, were found to have overpaid their 2017 federal income taxes and they received a $347 refund, per the report. McCabe told the publication that he and his wife, Jill McCabe, ended up paying the federal government a small amount of money they owed and he believes the audit has been concluded.
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The report explores the question of whether there was any selective targeting involved in a program the IRS says is random, noting that the IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig, is a Trump appointee and former President Donald Trump has been heavily critical of both FBI veterans. The odds of being targeted by the IRS in 2017, the report noted, was roughly one in 30,000 among the 153 million individual tax returns filed.
(AP Photos)
“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 I.R.S. commissioner, he has never been in contact with the White House — in either administration — on I.R.S. enforcement or individual taxpayer matters. He has been committed to running the I.R.S. in an impartial, unbiased manner from top to bottom.”
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Trump, through a spokesperson, told the news outlet, “I have no knowledge of this.”
Comey was fired by Trump in 2017, prompting the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller to lead the special counsel investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia. McCabe was fired from the FBI in 2018 hours before his retirement. In 2019, McCabe filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and last year won back his full pension as part of a settlement with the Justice Department.
