IRS Run Amok
Armed IRS agents raid Montana gun shop; agent uses fake name to enter Ohio woman’s home
Remember when failed presidential candidate and current senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren promised that IRS Will Have “Super Duper Enforcement” Powers?
Apparently, she got her wish when Democrats and the Biden administration made the IRS one of the largest government agencies with the insultingly-named “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Here’s some of our previous coverage:
- Biden Chooses Lois Lerner Associate to Oversee Massive Expansion of the IRS
- IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent Job Posting: ‘Carry a Firearm and be Willing to Use Deadly Force, if Necessary’
- Biden Admin Keeps Contradicting Itself on Targets of the New IRS Audits
- WH Economic Advisor Dodges Questions About Whether Bloated IRS Will Target Middle Class
While Republicans have vowed to defund these efforts, they really don’t have the power to do so, holding only the House by the narrowest of margins.
Apparently, 2024 candidate for the GOP presidential nomination and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson is running around with his albatross GOP of yore dragging along behind him as he whinges on about how the big meanies in the new and improved GOP need to stop talking about the weaponization of government.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, one of several GOP presidential candidates, on Sunday warned his fellow Republicans to “back off” allegations that the Justice Department has been “weaponized.”
. . . . “And so let’s back off of these accusations, and let’s get back to being the party of the rule of law, of the justice system supporting law enforcement and the equal application of law. Let’s don’t undermine the greatest justice system and criminal justice system and rule of law in the world today, this side of heaven,” Hutchinson said.
This flowery nonsense is simply not tethered to reality. It’s not even tethered to this century.
The truth is clear to everyone else, however, and it’s not “only” Biden’s DOJ that is being weaponzied against the American people. Democrats’ old standby the IRS is also getting back in on the corrupt targeting of normal Americans, and this time, it’s not a journalist who dares to testify against government corruption and weaponization.
It’s just random Americans gun store owners being raided “Soviet-style” by armed IRS agents in Montana, and a woman being tricked into allowing an IRS agent into her Ohio home.
The Blaze—in an article entitled, “‘Soviet style intimidation’: Armed IRS agents raid, close gun shop, U.S. lawmaker says“—reports:
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) is demanding answers after he says a group of armed IRS agents raided and temporarily closed a Montana gun shop in Great Falls Wednesday.
“This event is another example of President Biden weaponizing federal agencies to target and harass hardworking Americans for exercising their constitutional rights,” Rosendale said in a letter to leaders of the Internal Revenue Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Twenty heavily armed federal agents pulled in behind Highwood Creek Outfitters’ owner Tom Van Hoose as he arrived at his shop Wednesday morning, KRTV reported.
IRS agents confiscated background check forms from the store that contained sensitive personal information about all customers who ever purchased a gun at the shop. The forms do not include financial information, Rosendale said, calling the act an “egregious breach of privacy” that “showed no regard for federal law.”
“There is no circumstance in which 4473s would be necessary in an investigation spearheaded by the IRS,” Rosendale said in a letter addressed to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel.
Rosendale asked the ATF and IRS to “cease conducting these Soviet-style intimidation raids.” He also included a list of questions about what spurred the action, setting a June 23 deadline for response.
Yet another Republican congressman—Jim Jordan (OH)—is demanding answers after an IRS agent reportedly used a fake name to enter an Ohio woman’s home. After she found out who he was, he reportedly told her that he’s the IRS and can “go into anyone’s house at any time.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Friday demanding to know why an agent had told a woman that he could “go into anyone’s house at any time I want.”
Jordan revealed in the letter that a he’d recently learned of allegations about an IRS agent who had allegedly used a fake name to enter a taxpayer’s home and then threatened her. The letter explained that an agent going by “Bill Haus” showed up at an Ohio woman’s home in April, telling her that he can “go into anyone’s house at any time.”
“We have recently received allegations that an Internal Revenue Service agent provided a false name to an Ohio taxpayer as part of a deception to gain entry into the taxpayer’s home to confront her about delinquent tax filings,” the letter reads. “When the taxpayer rightfully objected to the agent’s tactics, the IRS agent insisted that he ‘can . . . go into anyone’s house at any time’ as an IRS agent. These allegations raise serious concerns about the IRS’s commitment to fundamental civil liberties.”
First, the IRS knocked on @mtaibbi’s door while he was testifying.
Now, we learn they harassed one of our constituents who didn’t do anything wrong.
And to top it off, the IRS agent used a fake name to enter the constituent’s home. pic.twitter.com/EJX0Qlynte
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) June 17, 2023
You can read the press release here.
These federal agencies are out of control, terrorizing normal Americans who have done nothing wrong . . . except dissent from or represent dissent from the Democrat agenda. Dissent, apparently, is no longer permitted in the United States of America, and that is a huge problem no matter what old-school Bush-Cheney fossils like Hutchinson say.
This sort of behavior by our government cannot stand if we are to continue being the Constitutional Republic of our great nation’s founding.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
“Amok?” The word means “uncontrobablly”. They’re absolute in control, which is way more of a crisis than mere ‘rogue’ agents.
Well, they are certainly uncontrollable by the electorate. So, “amok” works from that view.
(I still upvoted.)
The IRS and FBI [and numerous other agencies] are doing exactly as ordered by those they regard as their rightful superiors and not the Constitution, Congress, or the American people.
Subotai Bahadur
The power to tax is the power to destroy. ATF has given the IRS keys to auditing every one listed on those forms. The IRS has no legal access to those documents but ATF can review. Seizure adds a new wrinkle… as forms stay at the business until it closes and the forms then go to the ATF… in the past for just 20 years…. but now illegally scanned. Anyone who had ever owned a firearm purchased with a 4473 is now on the list as it grows. Social credit score anyone… or a new “enemy’s list”? The government can now crush everyone even remotely aligned with the Constitution.
Frankly, I always suspected as much. “The forms are kept forever” means the bureaucracies can change the rules at any time. Our government today is lurching towards totalitarianism of one kind or another. And most American citizens don’t care. Lincoln misjudged the number of people you can fool all the time if they’re cowards.
“And most American citizens don’t care.”
…most American citizens are unaware of what is happening and when you show them the reports, they start screaming at you (like my sister-in-law) “This is just false information from the Far Right!”
The latest version is the 4473 is “scanner friendly”. I believe it goes as deep as anyone ever purchasing a firearm is considered to have been or presently in “pre-crime”. Who is in greatest fear now… exactly what the 2A was about…. the present government structure is still vulnerable to a populace that could rise up against its totalitarian mandate. The Balkanization of the country is leading to instability….. think Yugoslavia… and to maintain integrity ,especially one tilting toward one party deep socialism, any opposition must be subdued if not eliminated.
Latest one I’m aware of is done on a computer screen. Easy Peasy. The problem is that the ATF keeps changing the questions just enough to make a slip up possible. Fortunately, the Dealers I’ve used have pointed out the changes before I started.
Precisely.
And, by the way, what’s Bill Haus’ real name? Don’t see that published anywhere.
It is actually baffling as to why the IRS did this hit and run. I’d like a clear answer as to that but if Congress calls the IRS head into a Committee they will get the “can not comment on an ongoing investigation” schtick.
The ATF can show up any time it wants at a dealer and look at those forms. What is the IRS doing there and then taking them? Since the dealer has to have those on sight will the ATF now come in and arrest him for not having them?
Meh, asking about the tactics employed during an investigation isn’t gonna result in revealing anything about the meat of the investigation. Ask the questions, issue a subpoena then hold them in contempt. If the DoJ refuses to act then send the flipping SGT at arms and Capitol Police (who work for the Speaker) to bring them to the HoR. Hold them in a damn broom closet for all I care.
Repeal the 16A and abolish the Fed.
In the meantime people are incurring huge costs with no way to recover them and to be made whole.
That’s soft terrorism.
It’s “soft” until they strike. This is the Coup at all levels.
They have to start somewhere – and the keep testing the waters along the way, acting with more and more outrage.
If you think there will be an election in November 2024, I think you’ll have a surprise coming. Martial law has been the goal, and it’s coming.
Why bother declaring martial law? I don’t even know if that’s possible under our Constitution. And it’s the control they want, regardless of how obtained.
“Martial law” gives them a name to put to their control. It “legitimizes” it, for certain, very weak, definitions of “legitimate.”
This is nonsense. There will be an election, and in Democrat-controlled areas there will be cheating (as always).
There is no mechanism for a nation-wide declaration of martial law, none. It doesn’t work that way. Even if Biden TRIED it, red state governors and city/local governments would reject it (all it takes is ONE open courthouse that is still conducting business, and there goes any federal declaration of martial law).
Please stop worrying about things that literally can’t happen and focus on what is actually happening. Reality is bad enough.
There is no mechanism for a nation-wide declaration of martial law”…. want to bet they couldn’t find a mechanism? Nothing , even so remote, is not off the table. Remember… try first and keep going if no push back.
Attempting to declare ‘martial law’ would likely be a bridge too far for most people. The beta test was conducted during Rona and plenty of folks didn’t willingly cooperate.
IMO the attempt would cross the Rubicon and galvanize much of the public against it with some number in active opposition. If that’s only 1% of the population of 335 million then that yields 3.35 million actively resistant.
In New Zealand, we’ve just found out that Government bureaucrats have been changing legislation between votes to sneak in their personal ideological positions. Democracy, what’s that?
What did they change?
“The General SS dealt with local police matters and with “racial matters.” The main component of the General SS was the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (“RSHA,” Reich Security Central Office in German). The RSHA itself was divided into four sub-groups, including the well-known Gestapo, headed by Heinrich Müller. The RSHA also dealt with foreign espionage and counterintelligence.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/background-and-overview-of-the-ss
The American SS. The IRS is another component. Obama and his henchmen use the government to go after Americans. Because of political differences. It does not get any more unAmerican than that!
The average German had just about nothing to eat, prices for bad food were skyrocketing, and and anyone who disagreed was being hauled off to camps, besides which they were being told it was all the Jews fault: it was easier to believe what they were fed in the speeches and the media.
Currently, as the prices for bad food are skyrocketing and we’re being told it’s the fault of Donald Trump, Klaus Schawb, and George Soros and all those pople who own guns and those who aren’t vaccinated.
Reminiscent?
And the Republicans, who had the power of the purse , just gave they all the $$$ they needed to
Pay the 87,000
You’re right. Biden and his Administration just made Kevin McCarthy. look like a fool and an an amateur.
He is on their team. Most of the GoP are.
That’s why it’s called the UniParty.
Didn’t they cut the money for the first year and say they would re-visit the issue next year?
Yes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2023/05/28/debt-deal-cuts-21-billion-of-irs-80-billion-87000-new-irs-agents-stay/
Actually…
My understanding is it’s all a game, they actually fund 85.5 thousand of them.
Now, Biden administration officials are offering assurances that the spending cuts secured by Republican negotiators will have minimal impact on the agency’s operations over the next few years.
The agency is on course to still get nearly three-quarters of the $80 billion boost that Congress approved for it last year. And the agency has the flexibility to spend some of that money sooner than planned, officials stressed.
“The IRS has the resources it needs in the near term to improve customer service and go after wealthy and corporate tax evaders,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo tweeted.
https://apnews.com/article/irs-debt-ceiling-budget-x-date-yellen-fe538fd8371cdf647400a27e6d56a9fb
Just imagine how much more obnoxiously lawless, totalitarian, unaccountable and vindictive the IRS will become, now that it’s empowered and drunk on the utterly obscene and indefensibly undeserved $80 billion that dotard-marionette, Biden, has gifted it.
Suspicions about hounding the middle class puzzle me. We’re not wealthy in retirement – we own our home and pay cash for everything. Thus the standard deduction is more than we can itemize and leaves us paying about 7.6% in fed tax. What cause would we ever give an armed IRS to come after us? Even the 2nd house we sold – we modeled the capital gains (?) based on the 1099S (?) we got and we’ll owe about $1000 more next year. Again, what’s to go after? Maybe I’m just naïve.
Think legal extortion. They say you owe them $10k. Tax law is functionally guilty until proven innocent. You would probably spend more than $10k proving your innocence, and they know it.
They can’t go after everyone all at once. Right now they’re after gun owners – specifically, conservative gun owners.
Reckon I think BDS (Biden Derangement Syndrome) is just as real as TDS.
I’m more worried about attracting attention for my dumb ass parody songs. Some rabid lefty artist gets their shorts in a wad that I parodied their song without permission – even though I give attribution – even though they get the royalties on YT and I get nothing but the clicks – I’m sure someone could make a snit about that and hurt me financially.
“What cause would we ever give an armed IRS to come after us?”
Because you own your own home, you’re a useless eater, and they could put it to better use.
Maybe. Ask the person who ran up a million dollar in fines putting a shed on a puddle in his backyard from the EPA.
My experience is they absolutely can extort money from you. They have with me before. California came after taxes that I never occurred in a small business I owned that never had an office in CA. It was cheaper to settle because it was less than $20,000.
NJ did the same thing for close to $100,000 for not charging sales tax on something that was not a taxable service. It was from 7 years prior right at the statute of limitations. They said prove it, we don’t believe what’s on the invoice.
Settled for $38,000 because that was how much my accountant and lawyer estimated it would cost minimum to fight in court.
Now imaging 87,000 of these guys running around.
Failed to report some income on something you sold on eBay ?
Have a former acquaintance turned enemy claim that he paid much more in cash than he did for something you sold him?
Did you do FIFO accounting properly on shares you held for more than 10 years in an IRA account? Don’t have the records?
$25,000 to $50,000 in fines and fees and more go up in smoke.
Time 87,000 agents on dozens of cases a year.
You don’t have to do anything wrong. It will cost you too much just to prove it.
While Republicans have vowed to defund these efforts, they really don’t have the power to do so, holding only the House by the narrowest of margins.
Well … we did have this thing called the “debt ceiling” that the left wanted like crazy. But McCarthy threw that away and got absolutely nothing. He green-lighted more un-Constitutional, insane, deficit spending to fill the left’s every desire.
NOW .. we’ve got nothing to negotiate with. Thanks, Kevin. You been berry hepful.
Not sure what the hubbub is. They were just following orders.
There will always be government agencies. What we need is a way to control them and I advocate for a Federal Department of Internal Affairs ( FDIA). Give it the full power to investigate and prosecute misbehavior by federal agencies and agents. Until they fear punishment such as prison time these abuses will continue.
And when IA goes rouge? What then? The solution is keep government small and weak.
First off I agree a smaller government is needed but I don’t expect that to occur anytime soon.
In the meantime ( and even when and if we get that smaller government) we need a watchdog agency to fight corruption in government. Yes it is possible that the FDIA could itself become corrupt but would that leave us any worse off than we are now since I would argue that almost every agency is corrupt to various degrees already? I see very little potential downside to a Federal Department of Internal Affairs and a good potential of upside. I also would prefer an agency directed inward towards government instead of outward towards citizens. Why let all the power be directed against the people instead of some against the government?
Furthermore I would take steps to help avoid it becoming corrupt. Among them
1) Only hire from state and local law enforcement agencies.
2) All employees of the FDIA are barred from employment at other federal agencies for at least 5 years after leaving the FDIA.
3) Annual performance reviews of every agent/prosecutor to make certain they haven’t been compromised
4) Have both Senate and House oversight committees to watch over the agency.
5) Also a civilian oversight committee with members appointed by state governors.
6) Base it outside of DC area. Several hundred miles outside.
I am also open to other suggestions on how to keep it from becoming corrupt.
It always makes me want to bang my head against the wall when somebody claims that the best way to reduce government is to add another government agency.
And it always makes me want to bang my head against a wall when someone is willing to cede all government authority to the other side. Really the potential downside is minimal and the potential upside amazing. Right now what do government agents have to fear by acting in a corrupt manner? Almost nothing. There will always be government agencies as long as there is government so why not have one agency that all the other agencies for corruption? Someone whose sole job is to root out corruption?
No.
We need the only agency authorized by the Constitution to do its job: the American voters.
The Deep State has not gained its power through nefarious underhanded dealings, but by the abdication of the authority of the people. You get it fixed when you get the people wanting to exercise responsible freedom again, and holding the gov’t to account.
I’ll wait to get full facts before jumping to conclusions. IRS field agents do not carry guns. Only CID agents do, and they are the keystone cops of federal law enforcement. They are never involved in any shootouts, so fantasize about being Clint Eastwood, and generally do nothing more harmful than waving a gun around in a barroom while nursing their alcoholism.
The agency is huge and there are bound to be some nutcases in it. Confidentiality laws do not permit commenting on individual cases, so there could be much more to both these stories.
If you want to tame the IRS, adopt a simple flat tax to replace the current system, and the agency will shrink to insignificance overnight.
So just wait until they show up at your door with guns drawn? The militarization of the federal government and the federalization of law enforcement continue apace.
You should be concerned not with the click bait nonsense of armed, gestapo IRS agents. The average agent is a pathetic milquetoast looking for that nice Indian family that owns 6 motels and only reports a third of the receipts, while wage slaves get screwed having every dime withheld. Look to the upper brass appointees like Lois Learner who slow walked conservative non-profit applications (and retires Scott free with pension) and those who let the justice department dismantle the slam, dunk fraud cases against the Biden clan. George Bush started the TSA with orders to harass granny as much as dusky thugs and the poor TSA agents get blamed. It’s the same thing. Simplify the tax code and minimal enforcement will be needed. IRS agents breaking down your door- what arrant nonsense. It’s like the UFO stuff. They want you looking in the wrong direction. You fall for it every time.
I see the Republicans are back to the defense of the populace by sending strongly-worded letters. That always strikes terror in the heart of Democrats, doesn’t it?
Are those folks wearing their Patriot Front uniforms to the range? Surprising.
OMG, I’m so glad I wasn’t sipping my coffee when I read that!
So true. Someone on Twitter said that we know the recent “Nazis” staged in front of Disney in Florida were fake because there was no antifa (or any couterprotesters at all) in sight. That is so true! And it’s true of all the glowie “Patriot Front” “protests,” too. Dead giveaway.
let’s get back to being the party of the rule of law, of the justice system supporting law enforcement and the equal application of law
That’s exactly what we’re doing, Asa. (So tempted to add an ‘s’ to that.)
harassed one of our constituents who didn’t do anything wrong
to confront her about delinquent tax filings
While I am a big proponent of even bad people get the protection of the law, one of these two things cannot be true. “Delinquent tax filings” are definitely something wrong, and either they did not occur or they did. I think Jordan is doing his side harm by his statement. (If there was even one delinquent filing, then he will be made out to be a liar, and everything else he said will be thrown out by a large chunk of people.)
I think there needs to be an investigation into the warrant over the gun store, and I think there needs to be a local law enforcement investigation of the fake name allegation.
As always, the answer is “Hell no, not without a valid warrant” and always get name and badge number from the badge. Also, record everything (but don’t put it in the cloud where the gov’t can just delete it).
Never put anything on the cloud. I keep all my files local, on independent storage media – USB drives, thumb drives and microSD cards. The only way anybody can mess with my data is to detonate a nuke over San Antonio.
Or delete it from your phone, then search your house and confiscate the rest.
IRS Run Amok?
How did that happen? Well, they were running behind and Joe said, “You have to hurry and catch up with the rest of my Administration..”