It's Kind Of Curious How Certain People Are Above Government Oversight

Bill Hagerty suggests funding should be held from the Treasury until it explains why agents showed up at Matt Taibbi's house pic.twitter.com/f1nJSgbpot

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 28, 2023

“Chairman Jordan” lol https://t.co/VETc3ubuo2

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 28, 2023

I didn't realize a legal defense to an IRS investigation was: "I'll call Gym Jordan!" I always figured there was a court system for that. Not anymore? Can anybody do that? Or do you have to be a "journalist"? (Yes, the irony is a rich one.)

Freedom of the Press Foundation continues to suggest that Taibbi's refusal to explain that the richest man in the world violated a consent decree protecting our privacy is an act of journalism.

This is not source protection, it's corporate PR. https://t.co/PIACbQoqqv

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 28, 2023

See? Being a journalist puts you in a separate class which should exclude you from any IRS investigation because it's immediately a suspect investigation because "journalist." Nice work if you can get it.

And then there's the source of all this (and yeah, he did contact Gym Jordan.  I was joking earlier.):

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Taibbi had informed House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) that his home was visited by an IRS agent, and now Jordan has sent a letter demanding answers. According to Taibbi, an IRS agent visited him home and left a note telling him to get in contact with them and informing him his 2018 and 2021 tax returns had been rejected. Taibbi said he has communication showing his 2018 return was accepted and he’d previously refiled his 2021 return.

I'm a bit surprised the IRS would send an agent who left a note with this kind of information on it.  Sounds a bit off to me.*  I mean, it's within the realm of possibility, but certainly shouldn't be standard practice to leave notes about personal tax information just laying about.  So I don't dispute the story; let's just say I doubt it very seriously.  Especially since Taibbi apparently has a straight line to madman Jordan, a bomb-thrower who never met a story he couldn't throw gasoline and a match on.  And the Google search I did turned up stories in National Review, Washington Times, FoxNews.  WSJ Opinion gets it (although they don't):

The bigger question is when did the IRS start to dispatch agents for surprise house calls? Typically when the IRS challenges some part of a tax return, it sends a dunning letter. Or it might seek more information from the taxpayer or tax preparer. If the IRS wants to audit a return, it schedules a meeting at the agent’s office. It doesn’t drop by unannounced.

Rather than ask "So could this story be made up?", they jump to "all that new money means IRS agents on a rampage, just as we feared!" And all the right wing outlets are following suit.

Still sounds made up to me.

*As a teacher, under FERPA, I was told never to put a student's private information (i.e., grades, the only "private" information I really had) in an e-mail, because it could be read by anyone.  U.S. personal mail was considered private (one of those "legal fictions"), but quite reasonable anything electronic can be a) intercepted, b) repeated ad infinitum (copied, sent out to multiple recipients, etc.) at the drop of a hat.  So  a “note" saying "Your tax returns were rejected"?  Rather than a letter (again, presumed private)?  Yeah, doesn't pass the smell test.