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IRS Opened Investigation Into Matt Taibbi The Same Day He Blew The Whistle On Twitter And The Feds’ Censorship Scheme
The Federalist ^ | May 24, 2023 | Shawn Fleetwood

Posted on 05/26/2023 5:50:00 AM PDT by Twotone

The IRS opened an investigation into independent reporter Matt Taibbi the same day he published a “Twitter Files” report documenting efforts between the social media platform and federal intelligence agencies to censor dissenting voices online.

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel demanding all documents and communications related to the agency’s decision to launch an investigation into Taibbi. According to the letter, the IRS’s inquiry was initiated on Dec. 24, 2022 — the same day Taibbi released a bombshell report detailing collusion between Twitter and the federal government to silence online voices disapproved of by the regime.

“The IRS’s production shows that the IRS opened its examination of Mr. Taibbi’s 2018 tax return on December 24, 2022,” wrote Committee Chair and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “Not only was this date Christmas Eve and a Saturday, but it also happened to be three weeks after he published the first Twitter Files detailing government abuses and the same day that Mr. Taibbi published the ninth segment of the Twitter Files, detailing how federal government agencies ‘from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA’ coordinated to censor and coerce speech on various social media platforms.”

In his Dec. 24 report, based on “documents passed to Twitter by the FBI-led Foreign Influence Task Force,” Taibbi revealed Twitter “was receiving content recommendations in bulk from an array of federal agencies through the FBI, about a range of topics — from domestic extremist groups in the U.S. to … Joe Biden, and the energy company Burisma.” The report also showed that Twitter — along with Facebook and dozens of other tech-related firms — regularly attended FITF-led gatherings, where “companies often received an ‘OGA briefing,’ usually about foreign policy matters.”

According to Taibbi, OGA is often used as a euphemism for “intelligence services in general, or the CIA in particular.”

During his March 9 testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Taibbi revealed the IRS had visited his home that same day, prompting Jordan to send a letter to the agency requesting information about its home visit. While the IRS produced some documents, those provided to the committee “raise more questions than they answer,” according to Jordan.

“The IRS asserted to the Committee that it sent a letter to Mr. Taibbi on October 24, 2019—nine days after Mr. Taibbi filed his 2018 tax return—asking Mr. Taibbi to verify his return because it met identity theft criteria and could not be processed until he confirmed,” Jordan wrote. “The IRS alleged that it sent a second letter to Mr. Taibbi on March 23, 2020. However, according to Mr. Taibbi, neither he nor his accountant received either of these letters or any other notification that there was an issue with his 2018 tax return—that is, until the IRS conducted a field visit at Mr. Taibbi’s home three years later.”

Equally alarming, however, is the tactics with which the IRS used to dig up any dirt it could find on Taibbi. Jordan revealed that a month after opening its inquiry, the agent assigned to Taibbi’s case was instructed to perform an “extensive investigation,” which included “using publicly available search engines and commercial investigative software such as Anywho, Consumer Affairs, LexisNexis Accruint, and Google.” The documents provided to the committee also purportedly show the agency kept a “dossier” on Taibbi that included information such as his phone numbers, voter registration records, whether he had a concealed weapons permit, and whether he possessed a hunting or fishing license.

Taibbi’s Wikipedia page was also examined during the investigation.

Notably, the IRS documents acquired by Jordan reveal that Taibbi “did not owe the IRS anything,” but rather, “the IRS owed Mr. Taibbi a substantial refund.” The aforementioned documents do not, however, provide any information regarding “the IRS’s decision-making process to open a case against Mr. Taibbi, or to conduct a field visit at his home.”

Jordan is demanding the IRS forfeit any and all records related to the agency’s investigation into Taibbi no later than May 31.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: censorship; irs; matttaibbi

1 posted on 05/26/2023 5:50:00 AM PDT by Twotone
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To: Twotone

Wow.


2 posted on 05/26/2023 5:54:19 AM PDT by Ge0ffrey
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To: Twotone

They go by different names, but they are the same thing. KGB. Securitate. Stasi. IRS. FBI. NKVD. CHEKA.


3 posted on 05/26/2023 5:57:12 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The democrat party is the most subversive and harmful institution on the planet. Tied with media.)
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To: I want the USA back

They should be called for what they are - Traitors.


4 posted on 05/26/2023 6:03:21 AM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: Twotone
The Republic can't afford the various bureaus of the central government anymore. Defund. Dismantle. Do not replace.

Repeal the 17th Amendment and return our Republic to a federal system.

5 posted on 05/26/2023 6:03:51 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: Twotone
For died in the wool liberals, I wonder if people like Taibbi will ever admit that liberalism will inevitably lead to totalitarianism. Or will he be one of those dupes who will continue to believe that progressivism is still the best philosophy but they just need the "right people" to implement it. My guess it's the latter. When you are that far left, you rarely learn your lesson.

I bet the same can be said about Bill Maher, Glen Greenwald, etc.

6 posted on 05/26/2023 6:04:08 AM PDT by Sir_Humphrey (The “only Trumpers” are just as damaging to the conservative cause as are the “never Trumpers”)
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To: Twotone

.


7 posted on 05/26/2023 6:12:47 AM PDT by sauropod (“If they don’t believe our lies, well, that’s just conspiracy theorist stuff, there.”)
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To: Twotone

What? The government using the IRS as a weapon? No way.


8 posted on 05/26/2023 6:15:50 AM PDT by Karliner (Heb 4:12 Rom 8:28 Rev 3, "...This is the end of the beginning." Churchill)
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To: Twotone

These political attacks from our own gov’t keep coming out and nothing is happening in response.

The Republic is over


9 posted on 05/26/2023 6:16:34 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (This is the end of the Republic....because we could not keep it.)
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To: Twotone

The U.S. government is completely corrupt and weaponized against ANYONE in America who tries to expose the bureaucrat, judicial and elected criminals who have overrun and control the government.

Americans now have a government completely run by felons who are traitors to the U.S. Constitution. They should all be in prison for life or hanged. At the very least, they should all be stripped of U.S. citizenship, deported and never allowed to set foot again on U.S. soil.

The American people have lost all input and control over their government because of corruption and rigged elections. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution have been torn up in our presence and thrown into our faces by the Devil’s Army of tyrants who have emerged from Hell itself like a deadly plague against millions of good and decent people.

Make no mistake. This is no less than a spiritual war against God and His people launched by Satan himself to try and deceive the foolish they are now gods themselves and can live by any rules they choose.


10 posted on 05/26/2023 6:17:07 AM PDT by Gnome1949
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To: Twotone

What a bunch of frauds these federal bureaucracies are.


11 posted on 05/26/2023 6:33:17 AM PDT by popdonnelly (All the enormous crimes in history have been committed by governments.)
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To: Twotone

“IRS’s inquiry was initiated on Dec. 24, 2022”

Someone in the Government was working on 24 Dec? Really?

I think not; someone got called in specially. and was probably pissed.


12 posted on 05/26/2023 6:47:34 AM PDT by Sarcazmo ("Sarcasm is the highest form of wit" ~ O. Wilde)
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To: Twotone
The stinking communist bastards have no reason to worry about consequences, political or otherwise...
13 posted on 05/26/2023 11:17:46 AM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is the next Sam Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: SuperLuminal

AND JUST WHAT are the GOPe doing about it ABSOLUTELY NOT A DAMN THING!!! Louis Lerner years ago NOT A DAMN THING was done to her!! The bastard GOPe didn’t even defund the bastards!! Louis walked away with her FULL PENSION!!


14 posted on 05/26/2023 11:21:08 AM PDT by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: Erik Latranyi

When God abandons a nation
https://youtu.be/Cz8AA_Oa0EU


15 posted on 05/27/2023 4:33:14 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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