What is anyone supposed to think of this?

According to the New York Post:

An IRS agent stopped by the home of Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi the same day of his congressional testimony on the weaponization of the government, according to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who's demanding an explanation over the oddly timed visit.

Jordan sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and the Department of Treasury on Monday in hopes of getting to the bottom of why the federal agent appeared at Taibbi's New Jersey home on March 9 and left a note, according to an editorial in The Wall Street Journal that cited the letter.

The note reportedly instructed Taibbi to call the IRS four days later.

When he did, an agent told him his 2018 and 2021 tax returns had both been rejected due to identity theft concerns.

A home visit?  No mail, no phone calls?  The IRS does home visits, all right, but only after cases are pretty well advanced and developed, and are quite likely to lead to a monetary haul for the agency.  Manpower is costly.  This was about expended manpower for the weird and trivial task of asking Taibbi to call them in four days, something they could have sent him a letter for, or even more logically, just called him themselves.  So yes, this visit looks pretty odd.

This was supposedly about identity theft concerns dating from his 2018 and 2021 tax returns, as if such "concerns" would merit a home visit, which is also odd, because they accepted Taibbi's 2018 tax return with no problem in that year, and apparently his 2021 return after some trouble filing electronically.  Taibbi said it wasn't about his owing the IRS money — he said they actually owed him money.

So what is this about?  It's passing strange that his tax returns were reopened after they had already been accepted.  What prompted someone to go look at his tax returns in the "accepted" file a second time?

Most likely, the sudden surge of IRS activity had something to do with Taibbi's appearance at the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, chaired by Jim Jordan himself, revealing government-private sector collusion at Twitter which involved censoring Americans' tweets, something Taibbi called the "Censorship Industrial Complex."

It seems to have angered someone in the government, given that Taibbi's research exposed abuses of government power.  That's Taibbi's job, to check abuses of power through the power of the First Amendment as a member of the Fourth Estate, but no matter.

Ordinarily, the government should accept this, because all the government would have to do is correct its overextended course in the wake of Taibbi's reporting, and it could go on its merry way.  But someone didn't like that prospect; some kind of ideology coupled with power was there, and someone seems to have retaliated with intimidation tactics on flimsy made-up charges against Taibbi.

This is how police states work.  Oh, sure, they will say it's just a coincidence that they sent an agent to Taibbi's home, but they'll have to explain themselves better than that.  They've already gotten away with Lois Lerner and her shady tactics against Tea Party groups; they must have more agents just like her in that agency, willing to act on ideological motives to silence government critics.

Whom are they taking orders from?  In the Lerner case, it was likely the White House. 

And why do they think they can get away with this, against an opposition-led Congress, no less?

Is this what Joe Biden's $80-billion monster funding of the IRS has brought us?  Is this what it was about?  If I recall correctly, John Hinderaker at Power Line speculated that a newly beefed up IRS, far from targeting billionaires, as Biden promoted to win the bill's congressional passage, would use the new cash infusion to target conservatives and other inconvenient people. 

Looks as though they did, and Hinderaker was right on the money.

It's amazing chutzpah that threatens free speech and every government critic in America.  It's now a new case for the House subcommittee on the weaponization of government to put on its docket, and fortunately, Jordan is acting with urgency, sending letters to Treasury secretary Janet Yellen (who's desperate to keep her job) and IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel (a brand new IRS commissioner appointed on March 9, who's certainly started out his new term with a bang), to explain themselves.

Both are particularly vulnerable as pawns of the Biden administration, as they both have ample reason to be eager to please their boss — Yellen because of her blunders on banks and inflation and Werfel because he is a newbie — meaning we can't be surprised if the trail might just lead to the White House.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.