Twitter Files: Rep. Schiff wanted journalist Paul Sperry suspended

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., served as the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. He should know what a free press means. However, according to the latest Twitter Files release, the California congressman wanted Twitter to suspend a journalist from the platform for exercising his First Amendment rights. Independent journalist Matt Taibbi published the latest volume of the Twitter Files Tuesday night to the platform.

Commissioned by new CEO Elon Musk, the Twitter Files consist of reports and internal documents that show how Twitter and federal agencies like the FBI and DHS worked in together to censor content it deemed as “misinformation” or “disinformation.”

In Taibbi’s Tuesday file dump, one of his Tweets highlighted an email exchange between Twitter employees about a request from former Chairman Schiff’s office.

Schiff wanted Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry and others from the site. The email shows an accusation from Schiff’s office saying Sperry was promoting false QAnon conspiracies. Schiff also accused Sperry of harassment, however the name of the alleged victim was redacted.

The email exchange showed Schiff’s office also wanted Twitter to remove any and all content, quotes, retweets and reactions to content concerning House Intelligence Committee staff members.

Twitter refused the requests, with one unidentified employee responding, “We don’t do that.” Sperry was suspended from Twitter later for unrelated violations. Sperry’s account was reactivated this week, however, and he immediately responded to Taibbi’s latest Twitter Files.

Sperry called his two-year suspension “political.” He suggested the real reason Schiff wanted him off Twitter was because of Sperry’s reporting on the Trump White House whistleblower. The revelations made by that whistleblower concerned the now infamous call between former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. President Trump was eventually impeached because of the phone call, but was not convicted by the Senate.

Conservatives online were quick to lambast congressman Schiff for apparently forgetting that U.S. journalists, even ones he may not like, have a First Amendment right to ply their trade.