John F. Kelly, who served as former President Donald J. Trump’s second chief of staff in the White House, said in an affidavit that Mr. Trump had discussed having the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies investigate two FBI officials involved in the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia.
Mr. Kelly said her recollection of Mr. Trump was relying on notes he had taken at the time in 2018. Mr. Kelly provided copies of his notes to lawyers for one of the FBI officials, who took the affidavit. public in a court case.
“President Trump questioned whether investigations by the Internal Revenue Service or other federal agencies should be conducted into Mr. Strzok and/or Ms. Page,” Kelly said in the statement. “I don’t know that President Trump ordered this investigation. It seemed, however, that he wanted to see Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page investigated.”
The statements of Mr. Kelly made the disclosures Thursday in a statement filed in connection with lawsuits filed by Peter Strzok, who was the lead agent in the FBI’s Russia investigation, and Lisa Page, a former attorney at the bureau. , against the Justice Department for violating their privacy rights when the Trump administration released text messages between them.
The revelations of Mr. Kelly, made under penalty of perjury, demonstrate the extent of Mr. Trump to use the law enforcement and investigative powers of the federal government to attack his perceived enemies. After Richard M. Nixon’s presidency, Congress made it illegal for a president to “directly or indirectly” order an IRS investigation or audit.
The New York Times reported last July that two of Mr. Trump — James B. Comey, whom he fired as FBI director, and Mr. Comey, Andrew G. McCabe—were the subject of the same kind of highly unusual cases. and invasive IRS auditing.
It is not known whether the IRS investigated Mr. Strzok or Ms. Page. But Mr. Strzok became the subject of an investigation by special counsel John Durham into how the FBI investigated Mr. trump Nor Mr. Strzok nor Ms. Page were charged in connection with that investigation, which former law enforcement officials and Democrats have criticized as an effort to exact revenge on Mr. Trump vs. the office. Mr. Strzok is also suing the department for wrongful termination.
Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page exchanged text messages that were critical of Mr. Trump and were later made public by Rod J. Rosenstein, then Mr. Trump’s deputy attorney general. Trump, as he faced sharp criticism from Republicans on Capitol Hill who were trying to find ways to undermine him.
The sworn statements of Mr. Kelly are similar to those he made to The New York Times in November, in which he said Mr. Trump had told him he wanted the IRS to investigate a number of his alleged political enemies, including Mr. Comey, Mr. McCabe, Mr. Strzok and Mrs. Page.
Kelly told The Times last year that Mr. Trump was part of a broader pattern of attempts to use the Justice Department and his authority as president against people who had been critical of him, including seeking to revoke the former leader’s security clearances. intelligence officials.
In the sworn statement, Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Trump had discussed revoking Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page, although Mr. Kelly took no action on the idea. Mr. Kelly said his notes showed Mr. Trump discussed the investigations of the two on February 21, 2018.
“I didn’t take note of every instance where President Trump made a comment about Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page,” Kelly said. “President Trump generally disapproved of note-taking in meetings. He expressed concern that the notes could later be used against him.”
Mr. Kelly said he never took any steps to comply with Mr. Trump to investigate his enemies.
Mr. Trump has said he knew nothing about the audits of Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe and their spouses. The IRS inspector general found last year that Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe had been randomly selected for the audits, although the inspector general’s report acknowledged some deviations from the IRS’s strict rules for random selection when the agency made the final selections from the returns that would be audited.
Mr. Kelly told the Times last year that Mr. Trump had at times discussed using the IRS and Justice Department to target others besides Mr. Comey, Mr. McCabe, Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page.
They included, said Mr. Kelly, former CIA Director John O. Brennan; Hillary Clinton; and Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post, whose coverage often angered Mr. Trump.
