Top aide: Trump wanted IRS investigations of foes

While in office, President Donald Trump repeatedly told John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff, that he wanted a number of his perceived political enemies to be investigated by the IRS, Kelly said.

Kelly, who was chief of staff from July 2017 through the end of 2018, said in response to questions from The New York Times that Trump’s demands were part of a broader pattern of him trying to use the Justice Department and his authority as president against people who had been critical of him, including seeking to revoke the security clearances of former top intelligence officials.

Kelly said that among those Trump said “we ought to investigate” and “get the IRS on” were former FBI Director James B. Comey and his deputy, Andrew Mccabe. His account of Trump’s desires to use the IRS against his foes comes after the revelation by the Times this summer that Comey and Mccabe had both been selected for a rare and highly intrusive audit in the years after Kelly left the White House.

Trump has said he knows nothing about the audits. The IRS has asked its inspector general to investigate, and officials have insisted the two men were selected randomly for the audits.

Kelly said he made clear to

Trump that there were serious legal and ethical issues with what he wanted. He said that despite the president’s expressed desires to have Comey and Mccabe investigated, he believes that he led Trump to forgo trying to have such investigations conducted.

After Kelly left the administration, Comey was informed in 2019 that his 2017 returns were being audited, and Mccabe learned in 2021 that his 2019 returns were being audited. At the time both audits occurred, the IRS was led by a Trump appointee.

Trump regularly made his demands in response to news reports in which he thought his perceived enemies made him look bad. The president would carry on about having them investigated to the point that Kelly thought he needed to tell the president that what he wanted was problematic, explaining that what Trump wanted was not just potentially illegal and immoral but also could blow back on him.

Trump would eventually let the idea go, Kelly said, but during subsequent outbursts he would again bring up his desires to have his enemies investigated.

Throughout Trump’s presidency he regularly ranted about Comey, whom Trump had fired in May 2017, and Mccabe, who played a leading role in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.