Dem. Rep. Stacey Plaskett crossed the line and threatened Twitter files journalist Matt Taibbi with 5 years in jail for allegedly lying to Congress. But Taibbi didn’t lie, her source, MSNBC reporter Mehdi Hasan, got the story wrong.
Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, is a non-voting member of Congress and is somehow the ranking member of the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, sent a letter to Taibbi with the threat.
Journalist Lee Fang broke down why the letter is so absurd: “Mehdi Hasan claimed Taibbi “deliberately & under oath misrepresented” the facts about the DHS/CISA’s work w/content moderation org EIP. That’s a serious charge, one that I debunk with new Twitter Files emails & other docs.
“Mehdi claimed Taibbi lied under oath to Congress – a felony that can be prosecuted with prison – by claiming CISA worked with EIP on content moderation. Mehdi says the truth is that only a private sector org w/ a similar acronym, CIS, worked w/EIP. Mehdi is wrong and here’s how.
“EIP had an internal ticketing system to flag content for censorship to Twitter, and an internal messaging system to alert CIS *AND* CISA. DHS/CISA elevate EIP-flagged tweets for Twitter. Here is a newly unearthed Twitter email in Oct 2020 showing the process.”
Plaskett wrote:
“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.
“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.
“Prior to your appearance before the subcommittee on March 9, you signed the Judiciary Committee’s Truth in Testimony form, certifying that you understand that ‘knowingly providing material false information to this committee/subcommittee or knowingly concealing material information from this committee/subcommittee, is a crime (18 U.S.C. 1001).
“In addition, at the beginning of the March 9 hearing, you swore ‘under penalty of perjury that the testimony you [were] about to give [was] true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief.’
“Under the federal perjury statue, 18 U.S.C. 1621, proving false information is punishable by up to five years imprisonment.”
EIP had an internal ticketing system to flag content for censorship to Twitter, and an internal messaging system to alert CIS *AND* CISA. DHS/CISA elevate EIP-flagged tweets for Twitter. Here is a newly unearthed Twitter email in Oct 2020 showing the process. pic.twitter.com/i5CB5ycwFo
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) April 11, 2023
CIS, or the Center for Internet Security, is a government contractor that manages partnerships on behalf of DHS. The two orgs worked hand-in-glove. This idea that CIS is totally separate is totally farcical and belies the way DHS exerts influence.
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) April 11, 2023
Mehdi Hasan is still lying. He claimed Taibbi conflated CIS and CISA *during his congressional testimony* and Taibbi thus lied under oath. There’s no proof of that, only vast evidence that Taibbi was correct that CISA partnered w/ EIP to flag content. https://t.co/L5g6E68rHy
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) April 11, 2023
