As Leah detailed this morning, an IRS agent showed up at the home of veteran journalist Matt Taibbi the day he testified in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about big tech, government censorship exposed in the Twitter Files. Here is what he said during his opening statement to lawmakers:
Matt Taibbi's opening statement on the Twitter Files and the censorship industrial complex:
— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 9, 2023
"Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government, from the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global… pic.twitter.com/BbMoSYNiR2
Now, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan is blasting the IRS and demanding more information, including documentation about conversations and government collusion, in the lead up to the "coincidental" visit.
"The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government of the Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on March 9, 2023, to examine the mounting evidence that the federal government pressured, coerced, and even directed technology companies to take certain actions related to digital content. The Committee recently learned that during this hearing, an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent visited, unannounced and unprompted, the home of one of the hearing witnesses, Matthew Taibbi, an independent journalist who has reported extensively on government abuse," Jordan wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Tuesday. "In light of the hostile reaction to Mr. Taibbi’s reporting among left-wing activists, and the IRS’s history as a tool of government abuse, the IRS’s action could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate a witness before Congress. We expect your full cooperation with our inquiry."
“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," the letter continues. "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."
Taibbi had this to say about the situation.
For those asking, I don’t want to comment on the IRS issue pending an answer to chairman @Jim_Jordan’s letter. I’m not worried for myself, but I did feel the Committee should be aware of the situation.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 28, 2023