IRS asks Treasury watchdog to probe Comey, McCabe audits

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS commissioner has asked the Treasury Department’s inspector general to immediately review the circumstances surrounding intensive tax audits that targeted ex-FBI Director James Comey and ex-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, both frequent targets of President Donald Trump’s anger.

IRS spokesperson Jodie Reynolds said Thursday that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig had personally reached out to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Reynolds said the agency has officially referred the matter to the inspector general.

But Reynolds insisted it is “ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals for National Research Program audits.”

The probe comes a day after The New York Times reported that Comey and McCabe were subjected to rare IRS audits of their tax returns. The newspaper said Comey was informed of the audit in 2019 and McCabe learned he was under scrutiny in 2021.

Trump repeatedly attacked both men over the FBI’s Russia investigation that shadowed his presidency for years. Trump fired Comey in 2017 in the midst of the Russia probe.

McCabe was fired in March 2018 after the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded he had authorized the release of information to a newspaper reporter and then misled internal investigators about his role in the leak. The termination by Jeff Sessions, the attorney general at the time, came hours before McCabe was due to retire.