Who is John Kelly?

Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said in an interview that ex-President Donald Trump requested Internal Revenue Service (IRS) probes of former FBI chief James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe. 

Kelly told The New York Times: “Trump’s demands were part of a broader pattern of him trying to use the Justice Department and his authority as president against people who had been critical of him, including seeking to revoke the security clearances of former top intelligence officials.”

He also alleged that Trump wanted to use the Department of Justice to investigate foes including Hillary Clinton and Jeff Bezos. Bezos owned the Washington Post, a newspaper that frequently printed negative reports about his administration.

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According to Kelly, Trump also discussed getting the DOJ to investigate former CIA chief John Brennan, ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok, who led the Bureau’s investigation into Russian interference, and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

Kelly’s claims have been denied by Trump. “It’s total fiction created by a psycho, John Kelly, who never said this before, and made it up just because he’s become so irrelevant,” Liz Harrington, a spokesperson for Trump, told the NYT.

Who is John Kelly? 

John Kelly was born on May 11, 1950, in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1970, 

he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was discharged to the inactive reserve as a sergeant in 1972 so that he could attend college. He returned to active duty with the Marines in 1975, completed Officer Candidates School

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In 1976, he graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and in 1984, he received a Master of Arts degree in National Security Affairs from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. 

Kelly graduated from the National Defense University in Washington, DC with a Master of Science in Strategic Studies in 1995. 

John Kelly is a US former political advisor and retired U.S. Marine Corps general, who served as White House chief of staff for Trump from July 31, 2017, to January 2, 2019.

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He had previously served as Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration and was commander of United States Southern Command. He is now a board member at Caliburn International.  

Kelly earned a reputation for being an aggressive enforcer of immigration law when he worked for Homeland Security. He was the first career military officer to serve in the position since Alexander Haig during the Nixon and Ford Administrations