{"id":1907159,"date":"2023-03-30T09:11:22","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T13:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-stonewalls-on-irs-agents-visit-to-home-of-twitter-files-journalist-matt-taibbi\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T09:59:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T13:59:01","slug":"white-house-stonewalls-on-irs-agents-visit-to-home-of-twitter-files-journalist-matt-taibbi_5159902-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-stonewalls-on-irs-agents-visit-to-home-of-twitter-files-journalist-matt-taibbi_5159902-html\/","title":{"rendered":"White House Stonewalls On IRS Agent&#8217;s Visit To Home Of &#8216;Twitter Files&#8217; Journalist Matt Taibbi"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhite-house-stonewalls-on-irs-agents-visit-to-home-of-twitter-files-journalist-matt-taibbi_5159902-html%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1907159&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>The White House on Wednesday remained silent when asked whether a visit by an IRS agent to \u201cTwitter Files\u201d journalist Matt Taibbi\u2019s home on the day he was testifying in Congress on government abuse of power was politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p> Taibbi, who\u2019s been a journalist for decades, was one of several reporters to be granted exclusive access by Elon Musk to internal Twitter communications that showed the social media giant coordinating with government and left-leaning organizations to censor content.<\/p>\n<p> He, along with journalist and author Michael Shellenberger, appeared on March 9 before the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, the same day that Taibbi said an IRS agent visited his private residence in New Jersey and left a note.<\/p>\n<p> Since the IRS visit to Taibbi\u2019s home came to light, there\u2019s been blowback. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) recently questioned whether the unannounced visit amounted to intimidation of a journalist who has worked to expose government abuse.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cIn light of the hostile reaction to Mr. Taibbi\u2019s reporting among left-wing activists, and the IRS\u2019s history as a tool of government abuse,\u00a0the IRS\u2019s action could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate a witness before Congress,\u201d Jordan wrote in a letter to the IRS.<\/p>\n<p> An IRS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that\u00a0\u201cfederal law prohibits IRS from commenting on an individual taxpayer matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner nominee Daniel Werfel testifies before the Senate Finance Committee during his nomination hearing in Washington on Feb. 15, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images) White House Stonewalls On Wednesday, a reporter raised the matter during a White House press briefing, seeking further clarification.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe journalist Matt Taibbi, this week said that the IRS visited his home on the same day as he testified to a House Select Subcommittee on the alleged weaponization of government. Taibbi worked on the Twitter Files project that revealed government cooperation,\u201d said a member of the White House press corps.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cI was wondering if you could respond to this Taibbi visit by the IRS and say whether this is part of a campaign to harass or intimidate him related to his journalism?\u201d<\/p>\n<p> The White House declined to provide any details.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cI\u2019m afraid I\u2019m going to have to refer you to the IRS,\u201d said John Kirby, the Coordination for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council (NSC).<\/p>\n<p> Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was also asked about the matter during\u00a0Wednesday\u2019s budget hearing of the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.<\/p>\n<p> Rep. Christ Stewart (R-Utah) asked Yellen for her thoughts on matter, suggesting that the odds that it was a random visit was \u201cminiscule\u201d given that it coincided with Taibbi\u2019s testimony in Congress.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThat the IRS appeared at someone\u2019s home while he\u2019s testifying about the weaponization of the federal government before Congress? Because I think it\u2019s minuscule. I think it\u2019s one in a million or less,\u201d Stewart said at the hearing.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cIt\u2019s certainly something that I would want to look into,\u201d Yellen replied.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not aware that IRS agents do that, except as you said, in cases where there\u2019s an investigation for law-breaking that\u2019s underway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before the Senate Finance Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 16, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images) Yellen\u2019s Remarks Draw Reaction Jordan, who sent a letter to the Treasury Department about the matter and gave it until April 10 to reply, responded to Yellen\u2019s remarks in an interview on Fox News on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe gave them a time in the future to get back with us. We hope they will. I\u2019m surprised that Janet Yellen didn\u2019t know anything about this,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThis is actually a pretty big development in America, in the United States of America, where you\u2019re not supposed to have the government being turned on the very people it\u2019s supposed to serve, which looks like may have been what was going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> \u201cRemember, the day before Mr. Taibbi testifies, we all learned that the FTC sent a letter to Twitter asking Twitter who are the journalists you\u2019re talking to, named Mr. Taibbi personally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe very next day, he testifies and Democrat members of the committee ask him, who are your sources, give us your sources, a direct attack on the First Amendment. And while they\u2019re asking those questions, the IRS is at his door.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Taibbi, for his part, took to Twitter to say that he\u2019s deferring comment on the matter until the IRS replies to Jordan\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cFor those asking, I don\u2019t want to comment on the IRS issue pending an answer to chairman @Jim_Jordan\u2019s letter. I\u2019m not worried for myself, but I did feel the Committee should be aware of the situation,\u201d Taibbi said.<\/p>\n<p> Shellenberger, an investigative journalist who joined Taibbi in testifying before Congress on March 9 on government abuse, remarked that the IRS agent\u2019s visit to Taibbi\u2019s home was highly unusual.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cWhile\u00a0@mtaibbi &#038; I were testifying before Congress on the weaponization of the federal government, an IRS agent showed up at his house. What an amazing coincidence,\u201d Shellenberger wrote in a post on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThat\u2019s very odd,\u201d Musk commented on Shellenberger\u2019s tweet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White House on Wednesday remained silent when asked whether a visit by an IRS agent to \u201cTwitter Files\u201d journalist Matt Taibbi\u2019s home on the day he was testifying in Congress on government abuse of power was politically motivated. Taibbi, who\u2019s been a journalist for decades, was one of several reporters to be granted exclusive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":1907160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[4967,5665,3653,8362,6794,3622,19158,9728,4253,7241,3765],"class_list":["post-1907159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-agents","tag-files","tag-house","tag-irs","tag-journalist","tag-matt","tag-stonewalls","tag-taibbi","tag-twitter","tag-visit","tag-white"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1907159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1907160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1907159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1907159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1907159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}