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Yesterday, the Colorado Sun laid bare CO-07 GOP primary candidate Tim Reichert’s flagrant hypocrisy for all to see. Despite his $23 to $99 million in assets, Reichert has tried to paint himself as the little guy and a champion of the middle class. He has directed his working man’s ire at Big Tech, decrying them as oligarchs.
The only problem? Tim Reichert literally represents Facebook.
Last month, Reichert skipped a debate to serve as an expert witness for Facebook in court as the company attempts to withhold $9 billion allegedly owed in taxes to the IRS — picking up a pretty check for himself in the process.
“Tim Reichert masquerades as a ‘man of the people,’ using Big Tech and Democrats as boogeymen on the campaign trail,” said DCCC spokesperson Maddy Mundy. “All the while, he’s been collecting checks from Facebook as he helps the company evade taxes owed to the American people. Coloradans deserve far better than this silver-spooned hypocrite.”
Read more about Reichert’s Big Tech hypocrisy below:
The Colorado Sun: The Unaffiliated: Tim Reichert criticizes big tech. He’s also an expert witness for it.
By Jesse Paul and Sandra Fish
May 31, 2022
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Tim Reichert, a wealthy Republican running to represent the 7th Congressional District, has blasted big tech, including Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, on the campaign trail.
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“The Democrats have become the party of Wall Street and the technology oligarchs on one side and they are the party of a dependent class on the other. They either want you to be an oligarch or they want you to be dependent,” Reichert said during a telephone town hall earlier this year. “So the natural home for the middle class now is the Republican party.”
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But Reichert, an economist, also recently testified as an expert witness on Facebook’s behalf in a federal lawsuit brought against the company in San Francisco by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS alleges Facebook owes billions in unpaid taxes.
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LAW360 reported on May 5 that the IRS tried (unsuccessfully) to block Reichert from testifying in the trial because he didn’t disclose his writings on the economics of contraception and abortions.
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On Reichert’s financial disclosure form, which laid out assets totaling between $23 million and $99 million, he listed the law firm of Baker McKenzie as paying him more than $5,000 in compensation for consulting. The firm is representing Facebook in the IRS case.
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Reichert, as part of his campaign, is pushing for a requirement that technology companies “rent” data from people through a clearinghouse that provides an income stream to tech users.
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