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 (IRS), the US 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, 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 said.
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.
Mark Zaid, a whistleblower attorney representing two of the Trump critics, said many such clients feared 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.
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.
Another of the former national security officials told Reuters they have directed their accountant that there can be no "grey areas" in their tax returns and they must be audit-proof.
A Republican strategist said he and his accountant were in negotiations with the IRS over more than US$100,000 in back taxes.
"We are hoping to settle with the IRS before Trump takes office," the strategist said.
Fifteen other prominent Trump critics did not respond to interview requests or declined to be interviewed.
They include two senior officials in Democratic president Barack Obama's administration, former CIA director John Brennan and former director of national intelligence James Clapper, and former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney.
Brennan headed the CIA during an intelligence community investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election which concluded in a January 2017 report that the effort was aimed at swaying the vote to Trump.
A 2018 bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report and Special Counsel Robert Mueller in 2019 reached similar conclusions and found contacts between Trump campaign aides and Russian officials.
Both probes, however, found that the campaign did not conspire in Moscow's interference operations.
Last year, Trump reposted on his Truth Social platform a fabricated image of Brennan, Clapper and others behind bars with a caption suggesting they be tried for treason.
Cheney was vice-chair of the congressional committee that investigated the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters and voted to impeach the former president.
During the election, she campaigned for his opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris.
In a post on his Truth Social site on Wednesday, Trump said the FBI should investigate Cheney for her role in the Jan 6 investigation.
"Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble."
In general, tax audits are rare. For all returns filed for tax years 2013 through 2021, the most recent long-term data available, the IRS audited just 0.44 per cent of individual returns.
An audit typically requires a taxpayer to produce receipts, bank statements or other documents and can involve costly accountants' fees.
A major audit can last months and even years with the possibility of a fine.
In extremely rare cases — fewer than 400 in 2023 — people can be jailed for wilful criminal tax evasion.
The IRS said in a statement to Reuters that they operated without political bias.
"Audits and collections are handled by career, non-partisan civil servants, and the IRS has safeguards in place to protect the exam and collection process," the IRS said.
* The writers are from Reuters