Former FBI Director James Comey, alongside former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, are apparently in for a seriously rude awakening, per a recent report from The New York Times.
According to the report, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Charles Rettig has requested for the inspector general at the Treasury Department to launch an investigation into the tax audits of both former FBI directors.
In an official statement, the IRS noted that the agency “has referred the matter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration for review.”
“IRS Commissioner Rettig personally reached out to TIGTA after receiving a press inquiry,” the IRS added.
In remarks to CNN, McCabe claimed that he thinks a referral constitutes “the right step,” though he is awaiting to see whether or not “the IG moves on it and then makes their findings public.”
In 2017, the IRS tapped approximately 5,000 individual tax returns for additional audits out of a total of 153 million returns filed.
In 2019, Comey was informed that his 2017 tax return was under review. McCabe was subsequently informed about a review of his own 2019 tax return.
Comey was notoriously fired by former President Donald J. Trump in 2017 due to a lack of confidence in the then-FBI director’s ability to manage the bureau effectively.
The IRS has openly defended its inquiries into the tax returns of both Comey and McCabe.
“Federal Privacy laws preclude us from discussing specific taxpayer situations,” the organization asserted.
Attempting to quell suspicion of any politically motivated audits, the organization continued on to insist that all audits were handed by “career civil servants.”
“Audits are handled by career civil servants, and the IRS has strong safeguards in place to protect the exam process, [as well as] against politically motivated audits,” the IRS insisted.
The agency also declared that it was “ludicrous” to assume specific individuals are ever targeted by “senior IRS officials.”
