IRS makes house call to journalist who exposed Twitter Files
The IRS visited journalist Matt Taibbi at his home this month as he was testifying before Congress about the weaponization of the federal government.
Taibbi, an award-winning journalist and author, was tapped by Elon Musk last year to report on the Twitter Files, a tranche of internal communications from Twitter’s previous management team. The documents revealed the federal government’s deep collusion with the platform to silence the Biden administration’s political opponents.
On March 9th Taibbi provided testimony on what he found in the Twitter Files to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. He learned later that while he was testifying, an IRS agent came to his home unannounced and left a note at Taibbi’s home instructing the journalist to call him in four days. When Taibbi did, the agent told him that his 2018 and 2021 tax returns were being rejected due to concerns about identity theft. The IRS specifically added that the issues are “not monetary”.
Taibbi says that his 2018 tax returns were in fact accepted over four-and-a-half years ago and provided documentation to the House Judiciary Committee proving that fact, according to the Wall Street Journal. In all those years, the IRS never notified Taibbi or his accountant that there were any concerns about identity theft, and the agency reportedly owes Taibbi a “considerable” tax refund.
The author’s 2021 tax return had been rejected twice, despite his accountant filing with an IRS-approved PIN number. Given that Taibbi had already been in communication with the IRS regarding the issue, it did not justify a house call from an IRS agent.
The federal government has been openly displeased with Taibbi. Earlier this month, House Republicans revealed that Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan demanded that Elon Musk hand over the names of journalists who were given access to the Twitter Files.
On Monday, House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding all documentation related to Taibbi.
“The circumstances surrounding the IRS’s unannounced and unprompted visit to Mr. Taibbi’s home, at the exact time that he was testifying to Congress about ‘the most serious’ government abuse he has witnessed in his career as a journalist, are incredible,” Jordan wrote in the letter. “The IRS’s visit is all the more concerning in light of Mr. Taibbi’s assertions that the IRS informed him the problems were not ‘monetary’ and he had never received any prior indication of any issues with his 2018 return.
“These facts demand a careful examination by the Committee to determine whether the visit was a thinly-veiled attempt to influence or intimidate a witness before Congress.”
