On the same day that journalist Matt Taibbi was scheduled to testify before Congress on the revelations of the Twitter Files, an agent with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) visited Taibbi’s home under suspicious circumstances.
According to the New York Post, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel demanding an explanation for the unusual timing of the agent’s visit, which suggests it may not have been an accident or coincidence. The agent did not enter Taibbi’s New Jersey home on March 9th, but left a note for Taibbi instructing him to call the IRS four days later; when Taibbi called the agency, he was informed that identity theft concerns had led to the rejection of both his 2018 and 2021 tax returns.
A longtime reporter for Rolling Stone, Taibbi has been one of the leading figures in the Twitter Files saga since Elon Musk bought the social media platform. Making good on his promises to increase transparency at Twitter, Musk has been giving internal documents and other evidence to several journalists, including Taibbi, for the purpose of exposing political bias, censorship, and other forms of corruption under the previous Twitter leadership. Taibbi and others would post the evidence in extensive threads on the platform.
Taibbi told Jordan and the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about the incident, providing proof that there previously had been no problem with his 2018 tax returns; Taibbi said that his returns that year had been electronically accepted by the IRS, and he was never told of any problems with them for over 4 years prior to the mysterious visit and note.
However, Taibbi has since refused to comment publicly on the incident, deferring to Jordan’s letter and any possible response from the IRS.
“For those asking, I don’t want to comment on the IRS issue pending an answer to chairman @Jim_Jordan’s letter,” Taibbi posted on Twitter. “I’m not worried for myself, but I did feel the Committee should be aware of the situation.”
Taibbi, and other journalists involved in the posting of the Twitter Files such as Michael Shellenberger, have faced criticism from Democrats for what they call cherry-picked examples of bias at Twitter; Democrats have claimed, without evidence, that the proof shown in the Twitter Files is selective and does not paint the full picture. In response to mockery from Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett, Taibbi said “I am not a ‘so-called’ journalist.”