Well, another big news report that hammered Trump has proven to be false news.
In what seems to be a clear rebuke of Rule #39, the audits of James Comey and Andrew McCabe were actually just a coincidence.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration announced this week that the audits were truly random and part of a program the agency was using to refine its technology.
The agency watchdog found no wrongdoing that would suggest that Trump ordered audits on the two men.
Fake News
The story started gaining grip in July when the New York Times did a major piece on the subject…
Breaking News: James Comey and Andrew McCabe, former FBI officials who Donald Trump wanted prosecuted, were both subjected to rare, intensive IRS audits. https://t.co/0TiHYvn7Uy
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 6, 2022
The conclusion of the piece was that there was only a "miniscule" chance that the audits were random.
Comey, at the time, stated, "Maybe it's a coincidence or maybe somebody misused the IRS to get at a political enemy. Given the role Trump wants to continue to play in our country, we should know the answer to that question."
McCabe added, "The revenue agent I dealt with was professional and responsive. Nevertheless, I have significant questions about how or why I was selected for this."
The reporter, Michael Schmidt, could not let it to go and seemed to insist that Trump had ordered the audits…
“Because of Donald Trump’s continued harping on these two individuals, it’s hard on the face of it to simply accept that this is random,” says @nytmike on the IRS audits of James Comey and Andrew McCabe. https://t.co/uQnXM3hfcn
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) July 8, 2022
Schmidt made the argument that then-IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, who was appointed by Trump and had personal ties to Trump, had fingered Comey and McCabe.
But that also ended up being sloppy reporting, as both men were selected for audit before Rettig took over the agency, something I would think would have been relatively easy to find out.
Ironically, CNN's Chris Cilizza, who has just been terminated by CNN, also pushed what is now nothing more than a conspiracy theory, stating, "it's *very* hard to see the audits of former FBI officials as coincidence."
So, we have speculation rather than reporting again.
What I find even funnier about this is that I just got done having an argument with someone on Twitter who claimed that Fox News was the only news agency that went on speculation rather than fact.
I noted that Fox News was the only agency that got numerous stories right, including the Russian Collusion and Hunter Biden laptop, while numerous other agencies had to retract stories.
I guess I can add this one to the pile.
Source: Free Beacon
