IRS investigated Matt Taibbi as he was revealing government censorship on Twitter
The IRS targeted journalist Matt Taibbi on two occasions while he was exposing information about censorship efforts by the government and Twitter.
The agency launched an investigation into Taibbi, a liberal journalist who has criticized left-wing censorship of conservative and moderate voices, on December 24, 2022, according to a Wednesday letterfrom House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio). On that same day, Taibbi was publishing some of the “Twitter Files,” internal Twitter emails that show the company coordinating with the government to censor so-called misinformation.
Just months later, on March 9, 2023, Taibbi was testifying in Congress when an IRS agent visited his home. The agency was performing “an extensive investigation” of Taibbi, looking into the journalist’s “voter registration records, whether he possessed a hunting or fishing license, whether he had a concealed weapons permit, and his telephone numbers,” Jordan’s letter revealed.
The investigation, which ostensibly concerned Taibbi’s 2018 tax filing, ultimately concluded that Taibbi “did not owe the IRS anything,” according to the letter. On the contrary, the IRS owed Taibbi “a substantial refund.”
