Speaking to reporters at the White House Wednesday, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby was asked why an IRS agent showed up at the home of veteran journalist Matt Taibbi on the day he testified about the weaponization of government on Capitol Hill. Kirby was also asked if the White House is concerned about the intimidation, given President Joe Biden's remarks at an event earlier in the day about the need to protect the press from persecution.
Kirby refused to answer the question.
WOW — John Kirby has absolutely NOTHING to say about the IRS making a house call to the home of @mtaibbi WHILE HE WAS TESTIFYING before Congress on the Twitter Files. pic.twitter.com/SXzGW9SCIz
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 29, 2023
Earlier this week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding answers and documentation of communication about the incident.
"The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government of the Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on March 9, 2023, to examine the mounting evidence that the federal government pressured, coerced, and even directed technology companies to take certain actions related to digital content. The Committee recently learned that during this hearing, an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent visited, unannounced and unprompted, the home of one of the hearing witnesses, Matthew Taibbi, an independent journalist who has reported extensively on government abuse," Jordan wrote in the letter. "In light of the hostile reaction to Mr. Taibbi’s reporting among left-wing activists, and the IRS’s history as a tool of government abuse, the IRS’s action could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate a witness before Congress. We expect your full cooperation with our inquiry."
“The circumstances surrounding the IRS’s unannounced and unprompted visit to Mr. Taibbi’s home, at the exact time that he was testifying to Congress about ‘the most serious’ government abuse he has witnessed in his career as a journalist, are incredible," the letter continues. "The IRS’s visit is all the more concerning in light of Mr. Taibbi’s assertions that the IRS informed him the problems were not ‘monetary’ and he had never received any prior indication of any issues with his 2018 return. These facts demand a careful examination by the Committee to determine whether the visit was a thinly-veiled attempt to influence or intimidate a witness before Congress."
