james comey and andrew mccabe. they were both selected by the irs, supposedly at random for very rare intensive financial audits. to give you a sense of just how rare this invasive random audit is, just one out of 30,600 taxpayers i selected for in any given year, and all the sudden interment us occasion with the irs is still run by the trump appointee commissioner claims it is quote, ludicrous untreated suggest that senior irs officials are now targeting specific individuals. in light of this news in how frequently trump sought to punish adversaries abusing the power of the state. it's worth remembering that these two men were the first people in the ex presidents administration who refused to go along with trump's tactics. james comey had been the director of the fbi for nearly three years when he opened the investigation into ties between the trump campaign and russia in july of 2016. he first met then president elect trump in january, 2017 when he informed trump of the evidence the fbi had collected. comey was

with comey gone, andy mccabe became the acting fbi director. in one of his first actions, the very next day, was to open up a counter intelligence investigation into the president, and his ties to russia out of fears that he too would be fired. and that investigation would be shut down. >> i was very concerned that i was able to put the russia case on absolutely solid ground, in an indelible fashion, that were i removed quickly or reassigned, or fired, the case could not be closed, or vanish into the night without a trace. >> you wanted a documentary record, that those investigations had begun, because you feared that they would be made to go away. >> that's exactly right. >> both comey and mccabe would repeatedly be targeted by president trump, who assailed them in public, and called for their prosecution. the following year, one day before mccabe was scheduled to retire and get the benefits that he had earned on the job, he was fired by the fbi amid accusations that he had lied to justice department officials. charges were never brought, and

president trump is far aired change comey's director of the fbi. it comes with that warning is sending shockwaves across washington this evening. the president dismissing the man who was leading the investigation into his campaign. >> comey learned of his firing through a tv report when you speaking with fbi jeans in los angeles. comey immediately headed home to washington repeatedly inferred the rating trump by taking fbi jet. had trump at a meeting with surrogate like off and, he told him i just fired the fbi, he was crazy real not job. the pressure is taken off russia. >> this is just a slew of attacks taken against james comey who he repeatedly called a cheater liar and said he should be tried for reason. a similar pattern then played out with none other than comey's successor, andrew mccabe. shortly after mccabe took over, trump summoned him to the white house for a meeting where he repeatedly asked mccabe who had voted for in the 2016 election. mccabe replied he did not vote. trump vented his anger at the mccabe through the several hundred th

for 2017, the year that they looked at comey's return. there were 5000 audits of these done on individual taxpayers. that could be a husband and a wife, or a partner, and so it could be a little bit more than 5000 people. but out of 150 million returns. they are randomly picking 5000 people out of 150 million returns. in 2019, the year that mccabe was audited. there were 8000 returns that were selected by the irs for this, out of 153 or 454 million returns that were from that year. these are very low numbers, and what former irs people that we talked to said, what are the chances that the people a top of the trump's enemies list. people that had overseen some of the most controversial decisions in the fbi's history. remember, a lot of people blamed comey for the election of hillary clinton. there are a lot of people that look very negatively on the fbi from this period of time. and these two people who are subject to these audits. >> the defeat of hillary clinton. the current irs commissioner was appointed to his post by donald trump in 2

now, after comey refused to do so, trump fired comey, in shocking fashion. in a remarkable oval office meeting, the following day, the day after he fired him, trump told russian diplomats that by firing comey, the previous day, quote, i faced a great pressure because of russia. that's taken off. around the same time trump all but admitted to nbc's lester holt that he fired comey because of the quote made up russia investigation. well with comey gone, andy mccabe became the acting fbi director and one of the first actions the very next day was to open up a counter-intelligence investigation into the president and his ties to russia out of fears that he, too, would be fired, and that investigation would be shut down. >> i was very concerned that i was able to put the russia case on absolutely solid ground in an indelible fashion that were i removed quickly or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace. >> you wanted a documentary record. >> that's right. >> that those investigations had begun. because you fear

i fired comey. well, i turned out to do the right thing. why didn't comey come clean? why didn't mueller investigate comey? >> you accused opponents of treason. who specifically are you accusing of treason? >> i think a number of people. if you look at comey, mccabe. >> there it is. treason. investigate them. on twitter, when he was allowed to tweet, he repeatedly posted about demanding their firing in the case of mccabe, and suspension of his pension and trying to get them imprisoned. so, now you have comey and mccabe targeted by this tax audit that to this day tonight they're claiming is just random. i'll report that's what the irs is just claiming. it's not just any audit. it's considered one of the most invasive in existence. the chance of being selected for it would be one in 136,000 for one person. but here you have two people, both named by trump in the same orbit. in fact, as far back as 2017, donald trump had a lawyer who suggested comey should be investigated, and that's the same year of comey's irs audit. keep in mind, this is a felony if it were proven that

comey and mr. mccabe and their spouses, according to the letters they received from the agency, were carried out under an irs research program to learn who is and who is not paying their taxes. the chances of being picked for this kind of audit, the times notes, in 2017, which is when comey and his wife were selected, is roughly 1 out of 30,600." the story goes on to say this. "the minuscule chances of the two highest-ranking fbi officials who made some of the most politically consequential law enforcement decisions in a generation being randomly subjected to a detailed scrub of their tax returns a few years after leaving their posts, presents extraordinary questions. trump, through a spokesperson, said he had no knowledge of the audits, but for years, comey and mccabe were public targets of trump's." as you heard at the top, he even accused both men of treason. it was james comey who revealed this to the public early in trump's time in office. >> i have been authorized by the department of justice

comey had to send the irs a christmas card to prove how many children he had. mccabe's audit began in 2021, months after trump left office. mccabe reacted to the reporting. >> we were talking about a coincidence that really is almost impossible statistically. it wasn't until i found out about jim comey's audit that i started wondering that this can't possibly be random. >> joining us now is chuck rosenberg, a former senior fbi official and u.s. attorney, and peter baker and former rnc chairman michael steele. chuck, i don't know if you have had that kind of intensive audit. they say it's very rare. for these two men, both of whom have the same job and both were on trump's enemy list, to both be audited is a one in 82 million probability, according to "the new york times." what say you? >> well, i haven't had the pleasure of an irs audit. perhaps something to look forward to, andrea. the statistics tell you that this is highly, highly unusual. the statistics don't tell you that it's improper. michael steele could win the lottery. it's extremely unlikely he will

the other, according to the new york times, former fbi director james comey. this all went down back in 2017, and the times report points out the odds of being selected for this kind of audit, that year, were roughly one mac and 30,000. andrew mccabe joins me now. i've got to tell you when i hear the odds, or think about this coincidence, kind of like when you are at the airport and someone says, you've been randomly selected you go, really, every flight i've taken i've been randomly taken out of this line. am i flag in some way? trump fired you and james comey and accuse both of you i would ask, of treason. what are the odds here. that the two of you, high ranking fbi officials considered by trump to be political enemies would be so randomly selected here. did you know at the time, there was this connection between you and james comey and these audits? >> laura, i had no idea. so, i actually got noticed about mine, in october of 2021. they were auditing me for the tax year of 2019. so, the letter comes, and it simply says, you've been selected, totally at ran

you look at comey, if you look at mccabe,. >> comey, in 2018, didn't hold back his feelings about trump either. >> i don't think he's medically unfit to be president. i think is morally unfit to be president. >> the years of dramatic discourse leading trump to believe that trump may have something to do with the audit. telling the new york times, maybe it's a coincidence or maybe somebody misuse the irs to get out of political enemy. given the role trump wants to continue to play in our country, we should know the answer to that question. -- >> it just defies logic to think that there was some other factor involved here. i think that's a reasonable question. >> when asked about the, audit former president trump telling the times through a representative quote i have no knowledge of this. and i.r.a. spokesperson telling nbc news, it is ludicrous and untruth suggest that senior irs officials from a targeted specific individuals for audit. the agency referring the matter to the treasury inspector general for review. whether it's a coincidence or, not the audits have already been completed.

the other, according to "the new york times," former fbi director james comey. that all went down in 2017. and "the times" reports this kind of audit, that year, were 1 in 30,000. andrew mccabe joins me now. when i hear the odds or think about this coincidence, it's like when you're at the airport and someone says to you, you've been randomly selected. really? every flight i've taken, i have been taken out of this line. am i flagged in some way. trump fired you and james comey. he accused both of you, i would add, of treason. what are the odds here, that the two of you, high-ranking fbi officials, considered by trump to be political enemies, would be so randomly selected here? did you know at the time there was a connection between you and james coney and the audits? >> i had no idea. i got noticed about mine in october of 2021. they were auditing me for the tax year of 2019. so, the letter comes and it just very simply says, you've been selected, totally at random, for this national program that we're doing, looking at people's returns. and i just assumed -- i

why didn't mueller investigate comey? >> you accuse your adversaries of treason. who specifically are you accused scene of treason? >> you look at comey, if you look at mccain. >> the irs has been adamant that there is no political interference and its auditing process, but according to the times, the odds of both comey and mccabe facing the most invasive type of audit is one in 82 million. now the irs has asked the treasury department's inspector general to investigate. from all on all of this, we are joined by another trump target. former fbi counterintelligence agent, peter strzok. peter, good morning. always a pleasure to have you here. andrew mccabe said that he only learned that jim comey was also be not adaptive being contacted by the time. so let's take a quick listen. >> i had no idea until the reporter from the times for judge to me. it was a bit of a shock i, have to tell you. it was discouraging, really. for me, this is the latest in what has been a long saga of being targeted by the former administration. >> peter, this audit story, may have become an

if they're going full comey, or comey 2.0 and lay triing to lay out the political sphere, they are already losing. so we'll keep an open mind because we don't have a full visibility. we're getting into that tonight at 6:00 p.m. with the evidence and not the internal probe. but from they're going down the comey lane of trying to pre-but info wars, they're already losing. >> and the reporting is that donald trump was not the immediate focus of this probe. but we've heard that is certainly has ramped up and we heard from the attorney general this week say no man is above the law. so this is difficult to gain out, katie, because of how opaque this investigation is. but is there a sense of time line and targets, how long this could continue beyond just the usual answer of as long as it takes. realistically, how long could the doj probe go before they make a decision. >> i would say they're not try toing re-but outcomes of their own, but their own inspector general and those who tried to pre-but anything, but they're trying not to be jim comey, who spoke about investigation news hillary clinton

you look at comey and mccabe. >> reporter: he fired comey just four months after taking office. >> i turned out to do the right thing. >> reporter: that led to robert mueller and the investigation of links into the trump campaign and russia. it also led to taking over the fbi in 2017. he was fired one day before he was set to retire. he revealed that they both faced an audit for the 2017 and 2019 returns respectively. at the time, both audits occurred and the irs was run by a trump appointee. >> this is the latest in a long saga of being targeted by the former administration. >> reporter: we are told that these audits are unusual. >> it's rare in the sense that you have two people in the same position being this generalized for audit review. it is an odd circumstance. >> reporter: the irs defending protocols in a statement saying the institution has strong safeguards in place to protect the exam process and against politically motivated audits. the irs is no stranger to political scandals. the nixon white house was accused of pressuring the then irs commissioner to target his enemies

trump fired comey. and as trump sought re-election, his attorney general bill barr in february 2020, decided to issue a new election sensitivities policy, ordering that in addition to the standard rules, any new investigation of a presidential candidate must be cleareden by him. as rachel first reported on monday, attorney general merrick garland has issued his own election sensitivities memo which continues barr's 2020 policy that the opening of any investigation into presidential candidates must first be cleared by the attorney general. and it comes at a time when garland's justice department is facing serious scrutiny over whether its is being aggressiv enough into the investigation, into january 6th and the broader plot by trump and his allies to overturn our 2020 election. especially as two other investigations into the matter continue to move forward and make new revelations. take for example fulton county georgia. the local district attorney there has sent target letters to 16 people involved in

donald trump made it very clear, james comey, what would be necessary for comey to continue as fbi director. james comey tells us that donald trump said, i need loyalty. i expect loyalty. tony ornato had no doubt, certified james murray's loyalty to trump before trump ten minute interview with him. but we know that donald trump was not going to give that job to anybody who did not clearly pledge loyalty to donald trump. so we know that james murray is a trump guy in every sense important to donald trump or donald trump would not have promoted him. to director of the secret service. in april of 2019, all of the democratic candidates for president had announced their candidacies and polling showed donald trump running far behind joe biden with joe biden at 51, and donald trump at 42. donald trump knew just like 2016, there was absolutely no way he was going to win more votes than the democrats. donald trump knew he was going to come in second with the voters, and his only hope was the electoral college, and this time, donald trump didn't want to take his chances with the electoral college. if

head of the irs to be fired after "the new york times" reported that former top fbi officials james comey and andrew mccabe, well-known foes of former president trump, were subject to invasive irs audits. mccabe telling cnn -- >> i don't know if jim and i were targeted. but there are a lot of facts that point in that direction. >> reporter: comey was the former fbi director and mccabe was his deputy. both drew trump's ire. he attacked them frequently, calling for their prosecutions, even accusing them of treason. >> we were both targeted and basically run out of our jobs by that kind of pressure and harassment. >> reporter: several thousand people are selected for these rare audits out of more than 150 million people who file their taxes each year. both audits were under irs commissioner charles red ig's leadership. redig was appointed by trump. >> the odds that the two of us would be selected for something that is supposedly a random program are really incalculable. >> reporter: the irs says the commissioner has now personally asked for a review of the audits. an irs spokesperson says an

i had no idea that jim comey had been subjected to the same audit. i didn't know that until the reporter who wrote the story contacted me, kind of out of the blue. we got the letter, i think, in october of 2021. and so the letter says, you know, on its face, you've been randomly selected for this research program that is designed to, you know, give the irs information about how people are meeting their tax obligations. so i just took it at face value and assumed it was actually random, it wasn't until i found out about jim comey's audit that i started wondering this can't possibly be random that the both of us were selected. >> the timing is very curious. in the case of comey, it -- he was told in 2019 it was going to be his 2017 tax return. and 2017 he had a big book deal, 2019 it turned out that bill barr, you know, wasn't going to pursue what trump wanted him to. similarly you had just been able to breathe a sigh of relief because your personnel record had been cleansed, your pension had been reinstated, but my question to you is, this was 2021, r

james comey and andrew mccabe were the subjects. the two both fierce trump critics and fired by trump. we have more details. how is the irs responding to this? >> we have a new statement from the irs saying that the head of the agency, the commissioner who was appointed by trump, reached out personally to the inspector general yesterday after being called for comment by the "the new york times." what are the odds and chances that two former executives of the fbi, two people investigating trump, how did they turn up? >> what are the odds? >> like 1 in 30,000. per year that are inswept up in this. something that people hope to get to the bottom of. andy mccabe was on cnn breaking the new that is the irs made the referral. let's listen to what he had to say. >> that's the responsible thing for the irs to do under these circumstances. i'm glad that the head of the agency made the referral and looks like the ig will take it up. the question is will they do it quickly, thoroughly and make the results public? the answer should be yes to al

why didn't mueller investigate comey? >> you accuse your adversaries of treason, who specifically are you accused in of treason? >> you look at comey, if you look at mccabe. >> donald trump denies that he had any knowledge of the audits, in a statement the irs said, the agency has strong safeguards in place to protect the exam process and against politically motivated audits. it's ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior high or assaulted shull somehow targeted specific individuals for national research program audits. >> joining me now is coleman, cbc analyst. welcomed, charles. as we get to the stats here, only a few thousand text players are at -- of the hundred 50 million returns. in your mind, you see this as a coincidence, or is it a cause for concern? if it's a cause for concern, will clip the legal ramifications be if politics plate into these audits? >> well good afternoon, alex, it's always a pleasure to talk with you. i think when you're talking about these type of things, they are not coincidental. we have

one of them happened to be comey. in 2019, mccabe was just one of 8000 americans audited. according to the new york times, a spokesperson for donald trump said he had no knowledge of the audits. but the times also writes, quote, the miniscule chances at the two highest ranking fbi officials who made some of the most politically consequential law enforcement decisions in the generation, being randomly subjected to a detailed scrap of their taxes, presents an extraordinary question. and i might add, to high-ranking fbi officials who had a hand and investigating donald trump. two men who probably, definitely, were high up on trump's list of enemies. it's a long list indeed. as msnbc steve bannon put it, history may not be repeating itself, but it sure does rhyme. repeating repeating itself, i mean, "riders" is cool, but "bikers"...is really cool. -seriously? -denied. can we go back to meeting at the rec center? denied. how do we feel about getting a quote to see if we can save with america's number one motorcycle insurer? should flo stop asking the same question every time? -

and former fbi director jim comey and his deputy andrew mccabe both facing suspicious intensive audits by the irs. the former irs director joining us to discuss. >>> and the breaking news this morning, boris johnson resigning as prime minister. we expect to hear from him in just minutes, but how and when exactly he is leaving is still an open question. like any family, the auburns all have... individual priorities. some like strategic diversification. some like a little comfort, to balance out the risk. others want immediate gratification... and long-term gratification,too. they have their own interests, but at the end of the day there's nothing like being... a gold-owner. visit invest.gold to see why gold is everyone's asset. it's time for our lowest prices of the season on the sleep number 360 smart bed. why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? because every green thumb, 5k, and all-day dance party starts the night before. the sleep number 360 smart bed senses your movements and automatically adjusts to help keep you both comfortable all night and help you get almost 30 min

for the comeys, it took them 15 months to go through the audit. it cost them $5,000 in accounting fees, something comey could afford. i'm not sure many americans could afford $5,000 in accounting fees. and in the end, they figured out that comey had overpaid on his taxes. he got a $340 something dollar refund. >> michael schmidt, thank you so much for your reporting. we'll be reading it in "the new york times.". >>> breaking news. the bbc is saying boris johnson is going to resign. >> wow. >> 12:30 london time. that is going to be in 6 minutes. we'll be right back with breaking news of that announcement when "morning joe" returns. when "morning joe" returns. >>> welcome back to "morning joe." breaking news from 10 downing street. boris johnson is going to step out, and according to the bbc, will be announcing his resignation as leader of the conservative party. wants to stay on as prime minister until autumn to give conservatives time to pick their next leader. but labor is saying no can do. that they will call for a no confidence vote if he doesn

it turns out in 2017 and 2019 james comey and andrew mccabe, two justice department foes, people that donald trump thought were foes faced intensive irs audits, the kind that people don't normally get, people call the autopsy without the benefit of death is the nickname for them. what do you make of the fact that two people that donald trump's dodge investigated, who he persecuted personally, saw as his enemies, magically get these unprecedented audits, both mccabe and comey? >> extremely suspicious. this is what i investigated as part of our process in the watergate investigation. richard nixon had an en any's list and provided it the list to people at the irs to get them audited. this is precisely what nixon did to make life miserable for people he didn't like. he did it with the irs commissioner. he also had larry o'brien, the chairman of the democratic national committee audited. there's a very specific way to get to this, and that's looking at all the documentation relating to the audit, trying to figure out who touched the returns, who asked for the audit, how did it originate.

really doesn't seem random when you look at the whole situation. >> have you spoken to james comey about all of this insula and he was audited as well? >> i haven't talked to jim. i only learned that he was subjected to the same audit when i was contacted by the reporter who wrote this story. i had no idea until the reporter from the times reached out to me. so, it was a bit of a shock, i have to tell you, and, discouraging, really. for me, this is the latest in what has been a long saga of being targeted by the former administration. i was subjected to a really biased ig investigation that resulted in my wrongful termination, which the justice department admitted when they reinstated me last year, a week before this audit was called for, i will point out. i was investigated for two years under a criminal investigation, a completely baseless criminal investigation that ultimately went nowhere and was declined. we are still dealing with the fallout from mr. dirham and whatever it is he is doing. so, it just really feels like this stuff is never going to end, but, you know, we will march o

and a conversation about james comey's possible continuation as fbi director, and when james comey did not blitz his loyalty, donald trump fired him. so, we know, what kind of pledges of loyalty donald trump exact those tuitions. did james murray delete the january six text messages on his own secret service phone? i have asked that question publicly here on television, and i have asked that question directly to the secret service. no answer. in his written statement today, james murray took the press release equivalent of taking the fifth amendment. he refused to say one word about the secret service text messages, including his own text messages on january 6th. he used the right to remain silent that criminal defendants half. the dam has begun to break in a way that means we are going to learn much more about the secret service text messages, that the secret service wants to remain secret. last night, the january six committee delivered a full accounting of the 187 minutes during the attack on the capitol, when donald trump did nothing to defend the capitol. but the evidence shows th

the head of the impeachment panel jamie raskin another major figure in the impeachment issues james comey. when he was in charge of the fbi, and these people got very substantial advances. on books based entirely on their experience as public figures and that to me is a very odd reward for public service and kind of corrupting. because it says to you. the more controversial i am the most no more notorious i am the more money. i'm going to make and that's a publishers it, you know prerogative to spend that money and it's always irritated me and so that you know, so i can't really be accused of hypocrisy once i started public affairs, which is 25 years ago. i would never have ever paid any of the kinds of money that people were throwing around now, but because of you know, one thing in another i was able to publish a number of major major books by people like paul volcker the great fed chair earning jordan the great civil rights leader george soros who obviously doesn't do it for the money. i was able to find the wesley clarke when he came back after having won the war in kosovo was able to

with questions swirling about those ties, as trump took office, comey dropped a public bombshell in the early days of the trump presidency. >> i've been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi, as part of our counter intelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals

the head of the impeachment panel jamie raskin another major figure in the impeachment issues james comey. when he was in charge of the fbi, and these people got very substantial advances. on books based entirely on their experience as public figures and that to me is a very odd reward for public service and kind of corrupting. because it says to you. the more controversial i am the most no more notorious i am the more money. i'm going to make and that's a publishers it, you know prerogative to spend that money and it's always irritated me and so that you know, so i can't really be accused of hypocrisy once i started public affairs, which is 25 years ago. i would never have ever paid any of the kinds of money that people were throwing around now, but because of you know, one thing in another i was able to publish a number of major major books by people like paul volcker the great fed chair earning jordan the great civil rights leader george soros who obviously doesn't do it for the money. i was able to find the wesley clarke when he came back after having won the war in kosovo was able to

comey and mr. mccabe had been fired by president trump, who said terrible things about them, that they were traitors, they should go to jail, obviously makes it important to make sure that nothing untoward was done. the national research program, which was where they were in effect audited, is a program that's been around for years and is designed to test the compliance rate in the united states. so having one person who ran the fbi selected and then two years later his deputy selected does seem to me worth asking a question about just to ensure as mr. mccabe said that the public are confident that every taxpayer's treated fairly, nobody's target and that nothing like this actually can happen. so i have great confidence in the irs workforce. they're all career employees. only the commissioner and the chief counsel are political appointees. and they all know billion that it's a criminal violation just to look at another taxpayer return if you're not authorized, let alone to do anything with it. so i

well put, jim comey, well put. time to bring some greatness and true genius to aspen. we can't stop there, why would we? next stop has to be martha's vineyard. it's natural, joe biden took a 70% of the vote on that small massachusetts island. over the past four years according to nbc data, 92% of all donations from the biggest town egger ten massachusetts went to the democratic party. you probably imagine that it is probably pretty diverse, the obama's live on the island. no. in fact, we checked. at last count, 95.7% white. what century is this? as of 2019 only 3% of all people, all residents in edgartown were born outside of this country. so do the math, that 17 people total, that is effectively zero diversity, which means zero strength. they are begging for more diversity. why not send migrants they are? in huge numbers. let's start with 300,000 to move up from there as the island get stronger, more. and then onto malibu. another democratic community, 84% white, malibu went for joe biden was 6.5% of the vote, 64% of all of the nations went to democrats over the last

do you believe you and comey were targeted by the irs? just how invasive was that audit that went on? >> well, wolf, i don't know if jim and i were targeted but there are a lot of facts that point in that direction. certainly enough that should compel and seems to have compelled the irs to take a hard look at it. the odds that the two of us would be selected for something that is supposedly a random program are really incalc uable and we have both been targeted by the former president, have been continuously harassed by him. we were both targeted and basically run out of our jobs by that kind of pressure and harassment. so i think it's absolutely a matter worthy of investigation. >> let's move on to some other important news while i have you, andrew. we've getting new body campaign video of the raid against jeffrey clark. it's not clear if clark is the subject of a criminal investigation but based on the fact he wasn't even allowed to get dressed while investigators cleared his house, what does that suggest about his potential legal jeopa

i mean, the highly unlikely circumstance that james comey and i were both selected at random, combined with the absolute, you know, well known facts of how we were both pursued and harassed, and targeted by the former administration, when you put those things together, obviously it raises clear questions that need to be investigated. i'm a little concerned by the head of the irs, they're somewhat reflexive comments that indicate almost a pre- judgment of, oh my gosh, this could never have happened here, when we know the former administration and president trump were engaged on multiple fronts and trying to use the structures of government, the institutions we rely on for trump's own benefit, so yeah, is there something to look at here? absolutely there is. i hope they do it in a thorough, transparent way. >> if it's politically motivated, that would be extraordinary. i really appreciate it. >>> the warning from russian resident putin and the message for him from zelenskyy, and this comes as the war is causing a massive hunger crisis in many places, next. lemons. lemons, lemons, lemons.

. >>> "new york times" reports that james comey and andrew mccabe both targeted and fired by president trump, each faced rare and intensive attacks during his presidency. mccabe says it should be investigated. >> how is it that both jim comey and i were selected for the same program which is as you mentioned one in 30,000 for the year. he was selected one some something like 20,000 for the year. i was -- it just defies logic to think that there wasn't some other factor involved here. i think that that is a reasonable question. i think that it should be investigated. people need to be able to trust the institutions of government and so that is why there should be some -- we should dig through it and find out what happened. >> the irs issuing a statement to cnn saying federal privacy laws preclude us from talking about specific taxpayer situations. audits are handled by career civil servants and the irs has strong safe guards in place to protect the process. it is untrue to suggest that senior irs officials specifically targeted specific individuals for national research program audits.

the former fbi director james comey and his former deputy, andrew mccabe, both of whom president trump saw as enemies, well both of them faced rare supposedly random but highly intensive irs audits. you may remember back when the then fbi director james comey oversaw the early stages of the fbi's investigation into ties between the trumpamig

comey, who alleges that trump demanded his loyalty in a private dinner between the two, was fired by the former president, just four months after trump took office. that firing, you will recall, led to the launch of special counsel robert mueller's investigation into possible links between the trump campaign and russia. it also led to mccabe's promotion to acting fbi director before he too was fired just one day before he was set to retire. in a statement to the newspaper, the irs notes that any allegations of wrong doing are passed along for further review. a trump spokeswoman told the paper that the former president had quote no knowledge of these audits. the reporter who broke the story, michael schmidt will be a guest on "morning joe" a little later this morning. >>> the georgia prosecutor investigating former president trump's efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results say more subpoenas may be coming. multiple trump allies including rudy giuliani, and senator lindsey graham, were subpoenaed on tuesday. in an exclusive interview, with nbc news, fulton county district

you may recall trump fired comey from the fbi in 2017 and mccabe fired two days before he was scheduled to retire. the "new york times" reported on the audits on wednesday raising questions of why two high profile critics of the former president were selected to undergo the extensive audits. mccabe says they should be investigated. >> to think that it wasn't some other factor involved here, i think that that is a reasonable question. >> in a statement to cnn, the internal revenue service denied conducting any, quote, politically motivated audits. >>> americans will get an update on the state of their economy in a few hours when a new unemployment report comes out. u.s. stocks closed up on thursday for a fourth day in a row. oil and gas companies led the way. the dow gained more than 340 points while the nasdaq and s&p were also up. the jobs report will provide an idea into whether high inflation could possibly lead to pink slips for some american workers. but the report is still expected to show a gain of around 272,000 jobs. the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.6%. >>> ahea

new york times broke the news both comey and mccabe were selected from the irs says supposedly random most intense audit. the odds of being selected for that audit are about one in 30,000. two people who trump saw as his top enemies were selected. well tonight, the irs has asked the treasury department inspector general to investigate how that happened. maybe it was truly random. maybe it wasn't. looks like we are about to find out. looks like we are about to fin out. >> this bright pink building you are going to see is known as the pink house in mississippi. it was the only health care facility in the state that provided abortions. until today. the pink house more formally known as the jackson women's health was the clinic at the center of the supreme court case that allowed this conservative court to overturn roe and casey. busier than ever this week with streams of cars, license plates from texas mississippi, louisiana, and arkansas, pulling up with patients. jackson women's health performed its last abortion procedure before the end of the day yesterday. and then it closed its doo

you have comey and mccabe, both of the fbi guys getting one. here's what mccabe said about this. >> address defies logic to think that there wasn't some other factor involved here. i think that's a reasonable question . >> so caras is out front and you been reporting on this, as one former irs commissioner said, lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place, so, what more are you learning about these audits and the inspector general investigation? we learned the irs commissioner a trump appointee, made this referral yesterday after they were contacted by the new york times with these details about these unusual audits into these two figures, who were critics of trump and who trump was critical of. so the inspector general's office has not returned our request for comment but these are computer-generated audits and the one thing the inspector general's office will be looking to is whether they in fact were randomly selected. they will talk to the auditors, they will talk to their supervisors and look to see if there's other communications, an

of course we know both comey and mccabe were frequently targeted by president trump. the mueller investigation, and the commission of the irs at the time was appointed by trump. and remains in that position to this day. what do you make of the story? >> well, this would be the kind of thing that causes people to lose faith in our institutions. it is very very fishy. we cannot say for sure that they were being targeted, but look, what do we know that donald trump? we know that he was absolutely not above using the federal government to target his political enemies. and when the institutions of government are targeting individuals who are critical of the president, that is the kind of affront to the rule of law that we saw throughout the trump administration. and so while this story came out, it is not very clear whether anybody is willing to say this is a definite case of them being targeted. but it is very unlikely that to people who get audited in the same way, that's something that happens very seldom, who both were very high-profile critics of trump and his adminis

i don't see enough difference with chris wray from jim comey, frankly pure they work together with doj and i've never seen the cleanup attitude from chris wra. when you talk about fbi agents or analyst sending information to the case agents and hunter biden to say this is russian disinformation, this is not just like a throwaway moment. they are sabotaging an active investigation. they are creating a requirement, by the way, the prosecutors turned that over as exculpatory information if they ever do indict hunter biden pure these are not lightly taken stee the inquiry into the present son or wherever that inquiry was going. that's got to change. i think it goes to the leadership. it is not the rank and file agents but a ton of agents do the right thing had to tell me they are frustrated with the polarization of these institution. there's got to be a sweeping change before the fbi is just a protective guard for certain democrats. >> gillian: gentlemen, thanks for staying up with us. we appreciated as always. speak with, gillian. >> gillian: house speaker getting support as well as democ

we saw that with page, strzok, comey, mccabe, bruce ohr. but at that time, jim comey was the fbi director and was complicit with regard to those efforts. hope was that chris wray would move away from the politicization at the fbi, but this whistleblower complaint very cheerily on his -- clearly on his watch, the names have changed, but the allegations are are the same, that these fbi agents were attempting to influence the outcome of the 2020 election by suppressing derogatory information about hunter biden and potentially joe biden. and, maria, here's what's important about this for your viewers to understand. this is more than just are about a two-tiered system of justice ors about fbi agents being able to lie and get away with it when the american people don't. people need to understand when we often our intelligence authorities, it is the fbi that is the primary domestic authority for investigating and leading to the prosecution of election influence and election interference. it's really a problem when the agency that is responsible fo

he said to james comey, i need loyalty, i expect loyalty. that is what he was saying in the first days of his presidency. how did the conversation go with james murray three years later? and donald trump's discussion with him about making him the head of the secret service? what kind of loyalty, exactly did james murray pledged to donald trump, and what kind of loyalty did james murray actually deliver to donald trump, and what kind of loyalty is james murray delivering to donald trump tonight? james murray has days left in his job as director of secret service. he is going to leave at the end of the month, and cash in his law enforcement ships for the big money, in corporate security, as the new head of corporate security for snapchat. snapchat, no doubt, already does a better job of maintaining electronic records then the secret service does. under donald trump's choice of secret service director, james murray. if you have been following the secret service story, and are only now hearing james murray's name for the first time, that is exac