By The FirstRep. Adam Schiff of California quietly asked Twitter to ban investigative journalist for Real Clear Investigations Paul Sperry in an email to the social media company in November of 2020. The revelation was part of the latest Twitter Files investigation published by Matt Taibbi on Tuesday.
“Requests arrived and were escalated from all over,” Taibbi writes. “[F]rom Treasury, the NSA, virtually every state, the HHS, from the FBI and DHS, and more[.]”
In an email between two anonymous Tweeter employees dated Thursday, November 12, 2020, one employee reveals that Rep. Adam Schiff’s office made a number of requests of Twitter, including to “Suspend the many accounts, including @GregRubini and @paulsperry, which have repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies and harassed [redacted.]”
“We’ll review these accounts again but I believe [redacted] mentioned only one actually qualified for suspension,” the Twitter other employee responded.
Sperry responded to the revelation on Tuesday, telling the New York Post that Schiff’s claims were false.
In an email Tuesday, Sperry told The Post, “I have never promoted any ‘QAnon conspiracies.’ Ever. Not on Twitter. Not anywhere.”
“Schiff was just angry I outed his impeachment whistleblower and tried to get me banned,” he said. “I challenge Schiff to produce evidence to back up his defamatory remarks to Twitter.”
Sperry also said, “This is a scurrilous smear, but par for the course for the unscrupulous Chairman Schiff.”
Sperry was ultimately suspended in August of 2022 after a posting on the Mar-A-Lago raid. His account has since been restored.
Schiff’s requests were not limited to suspending the account of Paul Sperry. In addition, the House Intel Committee chief asked Twitter to “Remove any and all content about [House Intel Committee staff] from its service–to include quotes, retweets, and reactions to that content[.]”
The Twitter anonymous twitter employee responded, “we don’t do this.”