Editor’s note: This article was written with assistance from artificial intelligence but was reviewed, curated and augmented by humans.
(Ben Sellers and Copilot, Headline USA) The O’Keefe Media Group founded by former Project Veritas leader James O’Keefe, released a bombshell report Wednesday exposing the invasive practices at the Internal Revenue Service.
A female undercover journalist sat down with Alex Mena, a member of the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit, and uncovered alarming details about the agency’s actions.
IRS story about to break!
Join our livestream “on the inside” in 10 minutes! https://t.co/iBUiFlg4l1— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) February 21, 2024
Among the findings was that the IRS uses artificial intelligence technology to spy on Americans’ bank accounts nationwide.
Mena confirmed that the AI has access to everyone’s bank account, raising serious concerns about privacy and constitutional rights.
“We have, like, all the information from all the companies in the whole world actually, not just in the United States,” Mena told the reporter, according to the Gateway Pundit.
He readily admitted that he “doubts the constitutionality” of such a tactic, although the laws surrounding the use of AI technology have yet to catch up with the rapid developments in the techology.
Despite the fact that the IRS itself is under the umbrella of the Treasury Department, its AI system, according to Mena, is managed by the Department of Justice and overseen by the DOJ Inspector General’s Office.
These entities wield significant power over the agency’s surveillance practices, creating a nebulous arrangement that makes the possibility of reform from within all the more unlikely. It’s “AI whether we want it or not,” Mena said.
The implications of such surveillance are chilling, and the journalist expressed concern about nightmares stemming from this revelation.
Mena also candidly stated that IRS “has no problem going after the small people, putting people in prison, and destroying people’s lives.”
He described them as “robots” who relentlessly pursue average Americans.
According to Mena, IRS agents lacked empathy and viewed their targets as mere statistics. Their focus is on enforcement, regardless of the impact on individuals and families.
The report has sparked outrage among citizens who value their financial privacy. Many are questioning the IRS’s unchecked access to sensitive financial data and the potential abuse of power.
As the public grapples with these revelations, legal experts are examining the legality of the IRS’s actions. The implications could be far-reaching, affecting trust in government institutions and individual rights.
It is the latest black-eye for the widely loathed agency, whose commissioner, Daniel Werfel, was grilled last week by the House Ways and Means Committee on a litany of concerns—including its failure to follow through on a controversial $600 reporting rule for financial apps, which some viewed as an effort to avert an election-year snafu for President Joe Biden.
Werfel had to answer for several other partisan actions, as well. Among them were an IRS contractor’s leak of tax information belonging to then-President Donald Trump and several other wealthy individuals; and accusations that the agency had, once again, begun implementing a double-standard with respect to its enforcement of tax-exempt rules for nonprofits, similar to the Obama-era scandal that ensnared Lois Lerner.
The House Oversight Committee has announced that it is investigating the selective enforcement of 501(c)(3) rules by giving leftist nonprofits more favorable treatment.
Middle-class Americans are also bracing to be hit hard this tax season by the new enforcement mechanisms built into the Democrat-backed Inflation Reduction Act, which is likely to bring more audits and has spurred fears of a newly militarized enforcement arm of the bureaucratic agency, which was authorized to hire some 87,000 new agents as part of the massive spending bill to supposedly reduce inflation.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
