IRS investigation of Taibbi stinks worse than you thought

Remember the minor controversy–maybe not so minor, if you were paying attention–regarding the IRS showing up at Matt Taibbi’s door the day he testified before Congress about the government’s censorship efforts?

No? Well the MSM didn’t think it odd that one of the most feared government agencies in America (who doesn’t shiver when they hear the word “audit?”) sends agents to your house. IRS agents almost never do that, because it is scary, expensive, and unnecessary unless there is a criminal investigation going on. It is extremely rare.

The timing was certainly odd, and it was noticed. A few people, conspiratorially I am sure, thought that maybe it was an intimidation tactic. Shocking, I know, especially since the whole point of the hearing that Taibbi was testifying at was the “weaponization of government,” which is something the Democrats vehemently deny happens.

Well, Jim Jordan, the Chair of the Weaponization Committee asked the IRS to explain itself. And wouldn’t you know, the circumstances of the case turned out to be even more odd. Almost suspiciously so, if your mind works that way. Jordan got the documents of the case from the IRS and some very interesting facts came to light.

The IRS claims that the visit was spurred by an investigation into his tax returns of 2018–four years ago since 2018 taxes would be filed in 2019–because they had questions about identity theft.

Um hmm. OK. How long has that investigation been going on, anyway? Have they been desperately trying to get in touch with Taibbi since 2019 and he has been avoiding them?

Well, no. Taibbi uses an accountant to do his taxes, and correspondence would go not to Taibbi alone but to he and his accountant. The IRS claims they sent two letters to Taibbi back in 2019 and 2020. Neither of the supposed recipients ever received the letter, and while Taibbi has the incentive to play dumb, his accountant most certainly doesn’t. If he has to choose between pissing off a small client or the IRS, his incentive is to keep the IRS happy for obvious reasons.

His job, literally, depends upon it. Plus there is the whole “penalty of perjury” thing, which these days only applies to political dissidents, not regime shills.

Still, OK. Assume that they are telling the truth and things got lost in the mail. Things have been dormant since March 2020, according to the IRS’ telling. No word at all from them, no concern, no nothing.

Then in 2022 Taibbi publishes the Twitter Files, and guess what?! A case was opened up on CHRISTMAS EVE, a Saturday, and a full-blown investigation of Taibbi begins.

Christmas eve. On a Saturday. I guess that was one very diligent IRS agent.

Saturday, December 24, 2022. I am impressed. Nothing suspicious here at all.

The IRS went into overdrive, investigating every aspect of Taibbi’s life. Using both public and private databases, downloading his Wikipedia page (which obviously has to do with his taxes), investigating his voter registration, his hunting and fishing licenses, and whether he had a gun permit.

Hunting permits. They compiled a whole dossier about Taibbi and his work.

All are very relevant to his 2018 tax returns, to be sure. Good to know that the IRS is thorough. It took them 3 years from the last time they even bothered to (they say) contact him, but they got around to putting his life under a microscope once he annoyed the Democrats.

Funny how that works.

And then they decided to make a very unusual visit. Not immediately, but the day Taibbi testified before Congress.

Nice life you have here. Would be a shame if something happened to wreck things.

The one great irony of all this is that Taibbi is very conservative in how he does his taxes, not wanting to piss off authorities more than he already does. When you go after the government, you don’t want to make it easy for them to retaliate.

The IRS owed him a tidy sum. The size of that sum is not revealed, but Jordan called the refund “substantial.” I assume that means thousands or tens of thousands. I have no idea.

To call looking into Taibbi’s fishing licenses “fishy” would be an understatement. To imagine that IRS agents make routine visits over small fry tax returns is ludicrous. It doesn’t happen.

This is the equivalent of the local protection racket guys just happening to show up with a baseball bat to offer their services. They are there to make an offer and refusing would be a mistake.

Things like this happen all the time in the world, but they happen to people in places we call dictatorships. The power of government in our Republic is not supposed to be wielded like this, but this behavior happened under both Obama and now Biden. Remember Lois Lerner?

The FBI and the IRS are now adjuncts of the Democrat Party. It is who they are and what they do. You may have read about how the IRS disbanded the Hunter Biden investigation. Just got rid of the entire team after they expressed concerns about the politicization of the investigation and interference from the Justice Department?

Now whistleblowers are literally being called traitors by Democrats.

MSNBC’s @NicolleDWallace: These fake FBI “whistleblowers” are “guilty of insubordination” pic.twitter.com/sBxpP5W3KE

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 18, 2023

Democrats like to talk about Nixon and Watergate, but what happened in 1972 has nothing on what the Biden people are doing.