The former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, Frank Figliuzzi, is out with a fiery new column for MSNBC, in which he takes aim at the rare and highly intrusive IRS audits that were lodged against former FBI director James Comey and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who just so happen to be considered as sworn enemies by Donald Trump, just shortly following the ex-president’s public falling out with the officials.
If you ask Figliuzzi, something seriously stinks about the whole thing.
A recent New York Times report revealed that the two former high-ranking officials — both of whom were very publicly ousted by Donald Trump during his time in the White House and have been a subject of his ire and vitriol ever since — were conveniently subjected to the IRS’s most intrusive, severe, and rare tax audit there is. The audit is so bad, in fact, that it’s generally jokingly known as “an autopsy without the benefit of death.”
Both the Times and Frank Figliuzzi couldn’t help but notice and point out the highly likely possibility of political manipulation by none other than Donald Trump himself, after both of the men earned the now-former president’s hatred for refusing to buckle to his unhinged demands.
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“There were almost 153 million individual returns filed for 2017, and the IRS selected only 5,000 for this most comprehensive of audits — that’s about one return out of every 30,600. If that’s not ‘random’ enough for you: McCabe’s attorney was audited, too,” Figliuzzi penned in his analysis for MSNBC.
The intel expert makes note of the fact that Trump has often made mention of rogue federal employees who do political dirty work behind the scenes. Frank says that hint shouldn’t be taken likely under the circumstances.
“During Trump’s administration, we heard him endlessly rant about a so-called ‘deep state‘ of federal employees buried deep within government agencies and intent on using their positions to do him harm. What we really need to know is the extent to which Trump appointees and loyalists who abused their positions may still be in government and still working on behalf of a former president instead of working for the American people,” Figliuzzi writes, before turning his attention over to current IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, who just so happened to have been appointed by… You guessed it… Donald Trump.
The Internal Revenue Service recently announced an inspector general investigation into the situation and Frank strongly suggested that Rettig should be benched until such an investigation has been completed.
“Rettig should be walked out of his office — now. At a minimum, he should be suspended pending the Inspector General inquiry. If the IG determines anyone at IRS violated the law, there should be a criminal referral and a swift prosecution,” the former high-ranking FBI official wrote. “Congress too must open an investigation into what transpired with these highly invasive audits and plug any gaps identified in a program that may well have been misused to target Americans.”
Figliuzzi did ultimately admit that the whole ordeal could just be one big, fat coincidence, but goes on to add, “…a potential abuse of a system that touches every American’s life is a matter that goes beyond Trump and his own penchant for vengeance. Americans need to trust that their government will not turn its full punitive powers against them simply because they incurred the wrath of a president. If not, this will someday happen again – and we’ll all be wondering how we ignored the lightning strikes that set our democracy ablaze.”
Read his full analysis column with MSNBC here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
