Tipsheet

A Democrat Threatened Matt Taibbi With Jail Time Over His Twitter Files Testimony

Democrats will stop at nothing to censor and destroy anyone who exposes their radical agenda to the American people, much like they do to former President Trump. 

Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, demands that independent journalist Matt Taibbi serve prison time for over testimony he gave about his reporting on the Twitter files. 

The Democrat claims that Taibbi lied under oath while testifying before Congress last month, saying he should get at least five years behind bars. 

Plaskett reportedly sent a letter to the journalist regarding a comment he told lawmakers, which she claims included an error that MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan previously propped up in a tense interview exchange regarding the name of one of the federal agencies swept up in the Twitter Files. 

The error referenced CISA, the government's Cybersecurity, and Infrastructure Security Agency, which he meant to refer to CIS, the Center for Internet Security. However, Taibbi later corrected the error in a tweet, admitting he made a mistake. 

Plaskett is accusing Taibbi of spreading misinformation, despite him making the needed changes to his previous comment. 

"This mistake is important because, by adding an 'A,' you weren't making a harmless spelling error. Rather, you were alleging that CISA- a government entity- was working with the EIP [Election Integrity Partnership] to have posts removed from social media," Plaskett's letter read." When presented with this misinformation, you acknowledged you had made 'an error' by intentionally altering the acronym CIS, and you subsequently deleted your erroneous tweet."

Plaskett reminded Taibbi that he had signed a form before the hearing affirming "under penalty of perjury" that his testimony was true "to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief."

"While these inaccuracies may seem minor to you, they could lead Congress to rely on inaccurate testimony in considering and/or passing new legislation which would impact all Americans," her letter continued. "In light of the potential for such serious consequences, I would like to offer you the opportunity to correct your statements before the panel…. providing false information is punishable by up to five years imprisonment." 

The Democrat referred to Taibbi as a "so-called journalist," demanding he reveals his sources during the testimony. 

However, according to the letter obtained by journalist and fellow Twitter Files reporter Lee Fang, she pointed out that the remarks Taibbi told Congress that Plaskett cited "were correct" despite the initial error in his Twitter Files reporting.