IRS inspector general says intensive audits of former FBI Director Comey and deputy were random

An inspector common for the Inside Income Service stated this week that important tax audits carried out for 2017 and 2019 – years the place former FBI Director James Comey and then-deputy Andrew McCabe have stated they have been audited – have been randomly chosen and didn’t present misconduct by the IRS.

The report doesn’t point out Comey or McCabe by identify however says the evaluation was carried out after a July New York Instances article.

“Perhaps it’s a coincidence or perhaps someone misused the IRS to get at a political enemy,” Comey stated in an announcement in July.

McCabe advised CNN’s Laura Coates on the time that, “individuals want to have the ability to belief the establishments of presidency and in order that’s why there needs to be some – we must always dig by means of this and discover out what occurred.”

In July, The New York Instances reported that Comey had obtained a extremely intensive tax audit for 2017 and McCabe had obtained the identical for 2019, questioning whether or not it was “sheer coincidence” that the 2 have been chosen.

The Instances was first to report the inspector common’s findings.

An lawyer for Comey declined to touch upon the inspector common’s report and McCabe didn’t reply to CNN’s request for remark.

Democratic Rep. Richard Neal, the chairman of the Home Methods and Means Committee, stated in an announcement that he had “requested a deeper probe into the previous president’s use of the IRS in opposition to his political enemies” final month, noting that “this report alleviates some issues” however hopes to obtain extra info from the inspector common.

The inspector common stated in its report that the workplace will proceed to look at sure IRS practices associated to the intensive tax audits.