Last week, Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, revealed that on the very day independent journalist Matt Taibbi was testifying before the subcommittee, an agent from the Internal Revenue Service showed up at Taibbi’s New Jersey home.
Last Monday, Jordan sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and the Treasury Department asking about the questionable timing of the agent’s visit, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.
The IRS agent showed up at Taibbi’s home on March 9 while he was in Washington testifying before the Select Subcommittee. The agent left a note instructing Taibbi to contact the IRS on Monday, March 13.
According to the Wall Street Journal, when Taibbi called, the agent informed him that his 2018 and 2021 tax returns had been rejected due to concerns about identity theft.
Taibbi, who has played a central role in the research and reporting on the Twitter Files documents, then informed chairman Jordan and the Select Subcommittee about the IRS’s oddly-timed visit.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Taibbi provided documents to the subcommittee showing that his 2018 return had been electronically accepted. He said in the last four-and-a-half years, nobody from the IRS informed him or his accountants that there were any problems with his return.
Taibbi told the subcommittee that his 2021 tax return was initially rejected, and then rejected a second time despite his accountants using an IRS-provided PIN when refiling.
In a tweet last Monday, Taibbi confirmed that he informed the subcommittee about the IRS visit but said he would not be commenting on the letter chairman Jordan sent to the IRS.
Unsurprisingly, the oddly-timed visit raised eyebrows.
In an op-ed last week, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee suggested that the IRS was targeting Taibbi due to his involvement in exposing the federal government’s collusion with Twitter in censoring political opponents.
During an interview on Fox News last Thursday, Chairman Jordan said he might subpoena documents and seek testimony from the IRS about the agent’s visit to Taibbi, adding that the timing of the visit raises red flags.
