NEW: After Schiff pressured Twitter, he used Jan 6 as excuse to pressure me and my editors @ RealClear to retract our whistleblower stories. His chief of staff claimed they were “dangerous” and could lead to more "violence.” We told them to take a hike. A month later I was banned
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 10, 2023
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A reporter indicated that he may sue Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., after internal documents at Twitter revealed the Democrat tried to get him banned from the platform.
Elon Musk and journalist Matt Taibbi’s “Twitter Files” entry last week revealed that Schiff lobbied Twitter to suspend journalist Paul Sperry from the social media site in November 2020.
Sperry, a senior reporter for RealClearInvestigations.com and a New York Post columnist, told Fox’s Brian Kilmeade that he was targeted by Schiff because of his reporting on Democrat sources in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.
“So, Schiff didn’t like the fact I outed his anonymous whistleblower as a partisan Democrat — he’s a holdover from the Obama White House working in the Trump White House. And [Schiff] also didn’t like the fact that I exposed the whistleblower’s prior relationship with the key member of Schiff’s impeachment staff,” Sperry said.
“So, I was kind of a thorn in Schiff’s side, and he was angry,” he continued.
The journalist called it “outrageous” that the powerful Democrat would try to “silence” the press.
“My stories went viral on Twitter, and he tried to silence me and remove content, which is outrageous censorship by a powerful government official. He was the head of the House Intelligence [Committee] at the time, and he was sworn to protect the First Amendment and free speech and the press,” he told Kilmeade.
Sperry revealed that Twitter had never given him a legitimate reason for his suspension, even though he argued he hadn’t broken any of the company’s rules.
He said Schiff’s interference affected his ability to do his job for two years, and he is looking at taking legal action.
“We are exploring legal options, including defamation,” he told Kilmeade.