'Literally a federal crime': Expert tears into new Trump threat

 
President Donald Trump’s latest threat against his political opposition was doused with the reality that he could be violating federal law for publicly airing his retaliatory request, according to American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.

 
Trump on Thursday openly floated the possibility of the IRS changing the tax status of organizations that disagree with his administration’s MAGA policies, including immigration and environmental rights organizations.

 
He then called out a Washington D.C.-based watchdog group by name while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon.

 
“I have a group name CREW, ever hear of it? It’s supposed to be a charitable organization, the only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking into that, we’re looking into a lot of things.”

 
But Reichlin-Melnick quickly flagged Trump’s threats of unleashing his IRS on his perceived political enemies as illegal.

 
“It is literally a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison for the President, VP, or any senior White House employee, to ‘request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the IRS to conduct ... an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer,’” Reichlin-Melnick said in a social media post.

 
He provided his followers a copy of the federal law titled "Prohibition on executive branch influence over taxpayer audits and other investigations.”