In a scathing ruling, the judge said the suit against Hillary Clinton and dozens of the former president’s perceived political enemies was “brought in bad faith for an improper purpose.”
Jack Smith’s challenges include a newly empowered Republican House majority and the recent disclosure of classified documents at a former office of President Biden.
The revelation that the agency had not audited Donald J. Trump during his first two years in office despite a mandatory presidential audit program raised concerns about potential politicization.
The I.R.S.’s inspector general said that returns from James Comey and Andrew McCabe were initially part of a randomly generated pool, but that a flaw in the final winnowing required further attention.