News/Commentary

Comey and McCabe audits may not be as suspicious as you think

July 9, 2022 | | Print Article

The so-called IRS “audits” performed during Trump’s presidency on former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe appear to not have been politically motivated after all, according to new reporting.

The “audits” were most likely “part of a little-known research program designed to help the Internal Revenue Service collect data on possible future tax cheats,” according to The Washington Post.

This means, in effect, that the so-called “audits” probably weren’t really audits. They were inquiries from the IRS’s National Research Program “designed to help the IRS capture data on certain types of tax filers who are more likely than others to misreport their incomes, even inadvertently.”

“IRS algorithms select taxpayers for National Research Program audits from a pool that disproportionately includes high-income taxpayers who are self-employed, or who generate revenue through sole proprietorships or from investments,” the Post notes.

Here’s the key: “[T]hey’re different from the enforcement audits designed to nab people for breaking the law.”

Meaning Comey and McCabe were reportedly never in any legal trouble.

But why were Comey and McCabe specifically chosen for the inquiries? Contrary to claims otherwise from the far-left, the two being picked seems to have had nothing to do with then-President Donald Trump’s beef with both men.

However, them being picked did coincidentally likely have something to do with Trump.

“[W]hen Trump fired them — Comey in 2017, and McCabe in 2018. Comey wrote two lucrative books and started giving paid speeches, and McCabe joined CNN as an on-air law enforcement analyst,” the Post notes.

“Those arrangements, say tax policy experts and former high-ranking IRS officials, would have made both men far more likely to be chosen for a research inspection than they were as FBI employees, because the pool of high earners with such eclectic income streams is significantly smaller.”

In other words, both men suddenly started making so much money that they piqued the interest of the IRS.

But aren’t the chances of them being picked from such a large pool of wealthy people slim? Perhaps, the Post notes, but the “experts” still believe it was coincidental.

“The odds of both men being pulled into the research program’s audits by coincidence shortly after Trump fired them may seem slim, but former top tax policy officials told The Post they were certain that’s what happened — though they acknowledged that it looked suspicious,” the Post notes.

The Post’s surprising report — it’s rare to see the Post defend Trump — was published as a follow-up to a “bombshell” report issued by The New York Times earlier in the week.

The Times’ piece revealed the “audits” — that’s the word they used — and suggested they’d been motivated by Trump’s deep dislike of both men:

“The former F.B.I. director and his deputy, both of whom former President Donald J. Trump wanted prosecuted, were selected for a rare audit program that the tax agency says is random,” the Times reported.

The Times’ piece predictably led to leftists running their mouths, prematurely accusing Trump of having indeed sicced the IRS on Comey and McCabe, and speculating that even more “smoking guns” would soon emerge.

Leftists also began calling for an investigation.

“Donald Trump has no respect for the rule of law, so if he tried to subject his political enemies to additional I.R.S. scrutiny, that would surprise no one. We need to understand what happened here because it raises serious concerns,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden said to the Times.

Speaking on CNN early Saturday morning, McCabe also called for an investigation.

“The facts that we know, the fact that both Jim Comey and I were subjected to these audits that are apparently conducted randomly, or according to the IRS, people are selected completely at random. The odds of that happening are so incredibly remote,” he said.

“And then the layer on top of that, what we know about how Jim Comey and I were both treated by the former administration. Both obviously targeted by President Trump. It still continues to this day in many of the public statements. I think that gives rise to a very strong indicator that this needs to be investigated. So what I’m looking for here is a thorough and transparent investigation by the IG.”

Listen:

The Biden IRS has for its part reportedly requested that Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Jodie Reynolds immediately investigate the inquiries.

Vivek Saxena
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