Some prominent critics of President-elect Donald Trump – including three officials in his
first administration – are instructing their accountants to safeguard against the possibility of Trump ordering investigations into their tax records after he returns to the
White House, according to interviews with Reuters.
Several American administrations in the 20th century misused the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. tax collection agency, to target opponents by ordering audits of their tax filings, historians say.
Six Trump critics, including two national security officials and one CIA officer in his first administration, told Reuters they fear a malicious IRS audit. Five are taking protective measures in response to the former president’s vows to seek retribution against perceived enemies.
“We are going through our finances with a fine-tooth comb,” one of the former national security officials told Reuters.
On the campaign trail Trump repeatedly called for the prosecution of perceived enemies, including Democratic President Joe Biden and his family, prosecutors who brought criminal cases against him while he was out of power, and former intelligence officials who investigated alleged ties between his 2016 election campaign and Russia.
This week Trump filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper and its former top pollster, alleging interference in the Nov. 5 election.
While Trump has not spoken publicly about using the IRS as an instrument of revenge, Mark Zaid, a whistleblower attorney representing two of the Trump critics who spoke to Reuters, said many such clients fear that they could be targeted by the IRS with groundless audits.
Even if no issue is found with their taxes, he said, an audit would force them to spend money on legal and accounting fees and stress them emotionally.
A Trump spokesman referred Reuters to an interview that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Dec. 8.
‘They Went After Me’
Asked if he wants to see investigations of his political enemies, Trump told the interviewer: “No, I don’t think so.” He then added: “If they were crooked, if they did something wrong, if they have broken the law, probably. They went after me. You
know, they went after me and I did nothing wrong.”
Since he won the election, Trump has been less vocal about going after his enemies. He has not named any of the individuals who spoke to Reuters.
With Reuters inputs
