An independent journalist made headlines earlier in October after publishing a 270-page report compiled by Donald Trump’s campaign regarding its vetting process for vice presidential pick JD Vance. Following the publication of the Vance dossier, the journalist, Ken Klippenstein, reported that he was visited by the FBI.
According to the FBI, the documents are believed to have been obtained by Iran when its operatives hacked into the Trump campaign earlier this summer. The hacked materials were distributed to several major news outlets, which chose not to publish them. However, Klippenstein published the dossier on his own.
After doing so, Klippenstein said he received a visit from the FBI.
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“No subpoena, no search warrant, no prior announcement, no claim of illegality,” Klippenstein said. “America’s most powerful law enforcement agency wants me to know that it was displeased. It is delivering what many would consider a chilling message: we know where you live, we know what you’ve done, we are watching.”
Klippenstein acknowledged that he anticipated significant reactions to his decision to release the dossier, which he understood was obtained illegally by a U.S. adversary. Nonetheless, he stands firm in his decision to publish the material.
“When I chose to publish the J.D. (sic) Vance dossier, I knew and acknowledged in the story that it had probably come from Tehran,” Klippenstein said. “This placed me at odds with the entirety of major media, which in an extraordinary act of self-censorship declined to publish the dossier.”
He criticized organizations like Twitter, Meta, Google and the FBI for acting as “arbiters of the news” consumers receive. Klippenstein argued that their concerns about “threats” to democracy, including foreign interference and misinformation, undermine the fundamental principle of freedom of speech and expression.
Another repercussion of posting the dossier was a ban on X, which was reversed. When Klippenstein uploaded the documents to X, his account was suspended. X stated that the suspension was due to doxxing, as the documents contained sensitive information, including the Ohio senator’s Social Security number and home address.
Klippenstein subsequently redacted the private information from the dossier, and his account has since been restored. He claimed that the decision to reactivate his X account came directly from owner Elon Musk in the name of free speech.
