Democrat Stacey Plaskett threatens Matt Taibbi with prison oan

OAN Roy Francis
UPDATED 7:37 AM – Saturday, April 22, 2023

Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat, and the delegate from the Virgin Islands to the United States Congress, recently sent a letter to journalist Matt Taibbi accusing him of perjury and suggesting that he could face up to five years in prison.

In March, independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger testified to the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about their roles in the release of the “Twitter Files.”

During the hearing, Plaskett had described Taibbi and Shellenberger as “so-called journalists” and was determined to undermine their testimony and reliability at the hearing, while demanding that the journalists reveal their sources. Taibbi had replied with the accolades and awards that he has garnered throughout his career, which solidify him as a reputable journalist, and refused to name his source to the Democrat.

However, the Democrat has now gone further in her determination to discredit the Taibbi. On April 13th, she sent a letter to the journalist accusing him of perjury which is “punishable by up to five years in prison.” The letter was obtained by Lee Fang, a writer who works with Taibbi.

Plaskett accused Taibbi of contradicting his testimony about Twitter in an interview with MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan. When Taibbi appeared on the show with Hasan, he was accused of conflating CISA with the private nonprofit organization, the Center for Internal Security (CIS). Taibbi had admitted that he had made a mistake with the acronyms in his tweet.

Plaskett accused Taibbi of spreading “misinformation” while “alleging that CISA – a government entity – was working with the EIP to have posts removed from social media.”

“While these inaccuracies may seem minor to you, they could lead Congress to rely on inaccurate testimony in considering and/or passing new legislation which would impact all Americans,” she said. “In light of the potential for such serious consequences, I would like to offer you the opportunity to correct your statements before the panel.”

The Democrat ended her letter by reminding Taibbi that before he had testified in front of the committee he had signed a form affirming that “under penalty of perjury” his testimony was true to the “best of your knowledge, information, and belief.”

“Under the federal perjury statute … providing false information is punishable by up to five years imprisonment,” she added

In a post on Substack, Fang refuted the claim by the Democrat that Taibbi had perjured himself.

“[T]he record shows that CISA, the government agency, was involved in the very formation of EIP,” he wrote, “and was one of the most important government partners to the group in its bid to influence content moderation decisions at firms such as Facebook and Twitter.”

As a result of the letter, Plaskett is now facing backlash from several journalists who are condemning her letter.