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Top lawmakers are preparing to privately question IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig in the coming days over reports that the tax agency may have targeted two of President Donald Trump’s political foes with sweeping and rare audits.
The moves by the Capitol’s key tax-focused panels — the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee — come amid growing concerns that the IRS improperly subjected James B. Comey, the former FBI director, and Andrew McCabe, his top deputy, is under unusual scrutiny after leading investigations into Trump and his 2016 campaign.
The two bipartisan meetings will be held behind closed doors, according to two people familiar with the matter, who confirmed the meetings on condition of anonymity because of legal sensitivities. The confidentiality is necessary because the IRS is restricted by law from publicly disclosing information about specific taxpayers, the sources said.
The House plans to hold its meeting this week, while the Senate is expected to question Rettig in the coming weeks. The IRS said in a statement that Rettig “always welcomes the chance to meet with members on tax issues and routinely flags areas that may be of concern to key leaders of congressional oversight committees.”
IRS chief faces questions over audits of Trump foes
The heads of the two panels — Congressman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) — previously called on the inspector general, who oversees the IRS, to launch his own probe. Rettig has similarly referred the matter to his agency’s watchdog, while his spokespeople say the IRS commissioner was unaware of any political interference and had no discussions about it with Trump, who first appointed him to the post in 2018. Mr.
“He is committed to running the IRS in an unbiased and unbiased manner from top to bottom,” IRS spokeswoman Jodi Reynolds said last week.
Wyden, meanwhile, said in an interview this weekend that his panel “will have its own investigation,” adding, “We’re going to do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of this.”
“These are very troubling issues and it is part of our core oversight function.”
In a letter last week, Neal described the allegations as “alarming,” urging the IRS watchdog — the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration, known as TIGTA — to determine whether Rettig or other senior staff knew in advance that the agency had subjected Comey and McCabe to extensive tax reviews.
These audits, conducted under an initiative known as the National Research Program, are painstaking and rare. Roughly 15,000 taxpayers are randomly selected for review each year, a fact that left some lawmakers and former IRS officials dismayed to learn that Comey and McCabe were selected from among millions of Americans within a few years of each other.
By firing his enemies, Trump made their taxes more interesting to the IRS
In recent days, Comey has questioned the potential for political motivation given his role in the Trump investigation, his 2016 campaign and allegations that the president obstructed justice.
“Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe someone abused the IRS to get their hands on a political enemy.” Given the role that Trump wants to continue to play in our country, we need to know the answer to that question,” he said in an earlier statement.
Trump has regularly attacked the former FBI director and his top deputy, McCabe, despite the former president claiming he “didn’t know about it.” In a statement, Trump still pointed to an earlier report from the Justice Department’s inspector general that criticized the two men.
The development has increased pressure on Rettig, whose term expires later this year. Some Democrats have called on him to resign in recent days. For its part, the White House has repeatedly declined to say whether Biden will reappoint Rettig — or even whether the president trusts the IRS commissioner.
“I’m going to say he’s going to be in November,” White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre told reporters last week. “He is a commissioner. … He’s an IRS commissioner, part of the administration. So we’ll… I’ll just leave it at that.”
Congress is seeking an IRS probe amid suspicions that the audits are targeting Trump’s enemies
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