In a sworn statement, John F. Kelly, the former White House chief of staff under President Donald J. Trump, revealed that Mr. Trump had discussed initiating investigations by federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), into two F.B.I. officials involved in the probe of his campaign’s connections to Russia. Mr. Kelly based his recollection of these conversations on his notes from 2018, which were provided to the lawyers representing one of the F.B.I. officials.
According to Mr. Kelly’s statement, President Trump questioned the possibility of investigations into Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page, although it’s unclear whether he explicitly ordered such actions. It seemed evident, however, that he wanted the two individuals to be investigated.
These assertions from Mr. Kelly were made public in connection with ongoing lawsuits filed by Peter Strzok and Lisa Page against the Justice Department for violating their privacy rights when their text messages were made public by the Trump administration. These statements, made under penalty of perjury, shed light on the extent of President Trump’s interest in using federal investigative powers to target his perceived adversaries. It is worth noting that after Richard M. Nixon’s presidency, it became illegal for a president to order an IRS investigation or audit.
Last year, The New York Times reported that two of President Trump’s perceived enemies, James B. Comey and Andrew G. McCabe, faced highly unusual and invasive IRS audits. Whether Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were also investigated by the IRS remains unknown. However, Mr. Strzok became a subject of investigation by special counsel John Durham regarding the FBI’s handling of Trump’s campaign, although he and Ms. Page were not charged. Former law enforcement officials and Democrats have criticized this investigation as part of Trump’s vendetta against the FBI. Furthermore, Mr. Strzok has filed a lawsuit against the department for wrongful termination.
Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page’s critical text messages concerning President Trump were later made public by Rod J. Rosenstein, who faced Republican criticism on Capitol Hill and sought ways to undermine them.
These recent sworn statements by Mr. Kelly align with his previous comments to The New York Times, where he stated that President Trump aimed to use the Justice Department and his presidential authority against those who had criticized him, including attempts to revoke the security clearances of former intelligence officials.
Although Mr. Kelly did not act on President Trump’s suggestion to revoke the security clearances of Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page, he documented that the discussions occurred on February 21, 2018. President Trump expressed disapproval of note-taking during meetings due to concerns that they could be used against him.
It is important to note that Mr. Kelly never took any steps to carry out President Trump’s desires to investigate his perceived enemies.
President Trump has denied any knowledge of the audits targeting Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe, along with their spouses. The IRS Inspector General’s report from last year revealed that Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe were randomly selected for audits, although there were some deviations from the IRS’s standard rules for random selection.
Additionally, Mr. Kelly informed The New York Times last year that President Trump had previously discussed using the IRS and the Justice Department to address other individuals, such as former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan, Hillary Clinton, and Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, whose coverage frequently infuriated President Trump.
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