According to MSNBC, following former President Donald Trump’s departure from the White House, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff for 17 months, has been vocal about his disdain for his former boss. Kelly has not held back in accusing Trump of poisoning people’s minds, having serious character issues, and lacking qualities of a real leader.
However, beyond Kelly’s personal assessment of Trump’s character, he has raised significant concerns about the former president’s abuses of power during his time in office. Last year, just before Thanksgiving, Kelly revealed to The New York Times that Trump had instructed him to use federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Justice Department to target his critics and perceived political adversaries.
The report in The New York Times stated that Kelly made it clear to Trump that there were serious legal and ethical issues associated with such requests. However, Trump continued to make these demands on a regular basis, prompting Kelly to remind him that his desires were not only potentially illegal and immoral but could also backfire on him.
While the significance of Kelly’s allegations may not have received prolonged attention at the time due to a series of other Trump-related scandals, they hold immense importance. Amidst Republican claims of the Biden administration “weaponizing” and “politicizing” federal law enforcement, which lack factual basis, here was Trump’s former chief of staff publicly stating that Trump himself engaged in the very abuse he falsely accused his successor of committing.
Over the weekend, these allegations came back into the spotlight for good reason. The New York Times reported that John F. Kelly, in a sworn statement, revealed that Trump had discussed using the IRS and other federal agencies to investigate two FBI officials involved in the investigation of his campaign’s ties to Russia. Kelly’s recollection of Trump’s comments was based on contemporaneous notes he had taken in 2018, which he provided as evidence to lawyers representing one of the FBI officials. This court filing is related to a civil case involving Peter Strzok, a former senior FBI official who is suing the bureau, claiming wrongful termination. Strzok and his lawyers intend to depose Trump as part of the case to determine if he played a role in the firing.
The significance of Kelly’s allegations is amplified by the fact that they were made under oath and accompanied by contemporaneous notes. It is not an everyday occurrence for a former White House chief of staff to implicate a former president in potentially impeachable offenses.
