By Jason Cohen
Daily Caller News Foundation
The IRS opened an investigation into journalist Matt Taibbi in 2022, immediately following his publishing of a Twitter Files report, according to a letter sent to the IRS on Wednesday by Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, which was shared on Twitter by Taibbi.
Taibbi released his first edition of the Twitter Files on December 2 in which he revealed alleged misconduct between the social media giant and government agencies. Documents indicate the IRS began an investigation into Taibbi’s 2018 tax return on December 24, 2022, according to Jordan’s letter; the IRS did not reach out to Taibbi regarding the 2018 return until last Christmas Eve, three weeks after his first Twitter Files release.
“During the pandemic IRS revenue officers were not making field visits,” the IRS reportedly explained as their reason for hesitating for such a long time before opening the investigation.
On December 21,2022, the FBI characterized the Twitter Files as the work of “conspiracy theorists and others… feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,” in a statement provided to the New York Post.
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Taibbi said Saturday, December 24, was one of the most frightening days of his life as he spent Christmas Eve by himself in a hotel room working on a Twitter Files Report titled: “Twitter and Other Government Agencies.”
Taibbi based that report on files the FBI-led Foreign Influence Task Force shared with Twitter revealing the social media company received a large volume of content recommendations from various federal agencies through the FBI.
The IRS assigned an agent to Taibbi’s case on Jan. 27 to initiate in-person contact, according to Jordan’s letter. The agent conducted a comprehensive investigation into Taibbi, including “information such as Mr. Taibbi’s voter registration records, whether he possessed a hunting or fishing license, whether he had a concealed weapons permit, and his telephone numbers,” according to Jordan’s letter.
Taibbi did not owe the IRS any money. “Rather, the IRS owed Mr. Taibbi a substantial refund,” Jordan wrote in the letter.
The IRS did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: “Election denier!” “Science denier!” “Climate-change denier!” “Conspiracy theorist!” And then there’s “hate speech,” “fake news,” “disinformation,” “misinformation,” even something called “MALinformation.” A bizarre new lexicon has been conjured up by America’s elites, the SOLE PURPOSE of which is to discredit and ridicule – and if at all possible, CENSOR ENTIRELY – speech that doesn’t support their increasingly dark and deranged agenda. Tucker Carlson is just the latest.
In the greatest imaginable irony, the nation once boasting the most robust culture of freedom of speech and the press – undergirded by the strongest constitutional protections for those rights – is now ground zero for a total war on free expression.
How could this possibly happen in the United States of America? It’s all explained as never before in the sensational new issue of WND’s critically acclaimed WHISTLEBLOWER magazine, titled “THE ELITES’ ALL-OUT WAR ON FREE SPEECH.” WHISTLEBLOWER is available in both the popular print edition and a state-of-the-art digital version, either single issues or discounted annual subscriptions.
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