Congress, Free Speech

“Congressional Trolls”: Democratic Leaders Pushed Refuted Russian Troll Claims

The latest release of Twitter Files from Matt Taibbi shows that Democratic leaders like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) were aware that they were pushing a likely false story of “Russian bots” to discredit a report on FBI abuses. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are also mentioned by Twitter as part of what staff called “congressional trolls” who did not seem to care if the allegations were true and only wanted Twitter to say they were true. Schiff and Blumenthal have been two of most outspoken advocates for censorship on the social media, often using “conspiracy theories” by Republicans to justify limits on free speech.

Some of the communications deal with a classified memo prepared by former Rep. Devin Nunes to the House Intelligence Committee on FBI abuses in the use of the FISA courts. That memo turned out to be well based, including the long-denied surveillance of Trump, his campaign, and campaign associates. It also highlighted how the Steele Dossier was discredited by U.S. intelligence officials despite being pushed by figures like Schiff.

We discussed earlier the files showing that Schiff was secretly pushing for censoring critics, including a columnist, while publicly denying that he supported any form of censorship.

Now the disclosures show that Schiff and others pushed Twitter to support their unsupported claims that “Russian bots” were pushing the Nunes report and other criticism. Twitter staff detail efforts to try to satisfy the Democratic members despite the lack of evidence supporting their claims. They referred to it as “feeding congressional trolls.”

Taibbi wrote that “Twitter warned politicians and media the[y] not only lacked evidence, but had evidence the accounts weren’t Russian – and were roundly ignored.”

At the time, Yoel Roth, the former head of Trust & Safety, wrote “I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo and… none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia. We investigated, found that engagement as overwhelmingly organic, and driven by [Very Important Tweeters] VITs.”

Blumenthal did not appear to care if the claim was true or not. After being told that there was no evidence that the story was being propelled by Russian bots and trolls, Blumenthal responded with a letter declaring that “we find it reprehensible that Russian agents have so eagerly manipulated innocent Americans.”

So, after being told that this was an unsupported conspiracy theory, Blumenthal continued to push the claim. One official wrote “Blumenthal isn’t looking for real and nuanced solutions” but “just wants to get credit for pushing us further.”

Twitter officials compared Blumenthal and Schiff to the mouse in the children’s story  “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” In other words, by trying to appease them, they demanded more confirmation of false claims.

Blumenthal has long demanded censorship to combat Republican “conspiracy theories.”

As previously discussed, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared at a key hearing in which he followed up his apology for censoring the Hunter Biden story by pledging more censorship.

Notably, Dorsey starts with the same argument made by free speech advocates:

“Well, misleading information, as you are aware, is a large problem. It’s hard to define it completely and cohesively.” However, instead of then raising concerns over censoring views and comments on the basis for such an amorphous category, Democratic senators pressed for an expansion of the categories of censored material to prevent people from sharing any views that he considers “climate denialism”

Senator Blumenthal said that he was “concerned that both of your companies are, in fact, backsliding or retrenching, that you are failing to take action against dangerous disinformation.” Accordingly, he demanded an answer to this question:

“Will you commit to the same kind of robust content modification playbook in this coming election, including fact checking, labeling, reducing the spread of misinformation, and other steps, even for politicians in the runoff elections ahead?”

While the media ran with the false claims of Schiff and Blumenthal during the Russian collusion investigation, there is little attention to these files and the fact that they were told that these these claims lacked support by Twitter.

 

 

61 thoughts on ““Congressional Trolls”: Democratic Leaders Pushed Refuted Russian Troll Claims”

  1. I don’t think we got a tenth of what was actually going on at twitter with the democrats repeatedly breaking the 1st amendment.
    It was astounding that Jim Baker, the democrat con, was caught deleting crimes before passing them on to the left wing democrats reporting the twitter files.
    It was far worse than all the reports which are terrible and criminal and just astounding. We further have all the other big social media players where the embedding and crimes and censoring are ongoing and nothing is being done about it. Our nation is a criminal cesspool of democrats destroying the place.
    My condolences to those who were coerced or fooled and took the fauci jabs since that was another giant crime with full on censorship and lies from the regime, still ongoing, yet cracking up… boy we better get there before drop dead becomes apparent magic from the lips of the disgruntled

  2. Hey everybody, on January 16th the boys and girls will start 5 days of fun and relaxation at Davis Switzerland. Remember, they are only thinking of our welfare.

  3. So much for having a good day. I’ve been sadly reminded again of Schiff and Blumenthal, and all the others who remind me of them.

    1. A huff and Blumenthal, gifts that keep on giving. Capital hill must be full of pathological liars who have. O sense of right or wrong.

  4. The root perversion here, by either charlatans or “do-gooders”, starts with an open-ended definition of “election interference.”

    This appears to be anything on the Internet that persuades (or so it’s claimed) someone to consider voting a certain way. Well, not “persuades”…..rather dupes. Rather, exerts mind-control over the electorate to vote in a way the person using this definition of “election interference” does not like.

    Election interference is tampering with votes in some way. That is all it is. It isn’t anything else.

    With that established, censorship ought to be seen by these self-described elites for what it is. (But then, these self-described elites think they have untapped enlightenment the rest of us can only dream of.) So perhaps not.

  5. Schiff and Blumenthal. Two of the most reprehensible, dishonest prog/left operatives. That they find re-election by hordes of brainwashed parasites and ideologues is what troubles me. This sort of demographic shift that allows people of their nature to be sent to congress with votes gotten through promises of actions not benefitting the nation as a whole but to select grievance groups and fanatics will eventually destroy our nation and our culture.

  6. “Blumenthal did not appear to care if the claim was true or not.” (JT)

    Of course they don’t care. Truth is not a vlaue to the Left. It is on the evil premise that the ends justifies the means. In this case, their end is to smear. And their premise justifies lying.

    The Left will remain the party of pathological liars, until it jettisons that evil premise.

  7. “Taibbi wrote that “Twitter warned politicians and media the[y] not only lacked evidence, but had evidence the accounts weren’t Russian – and were roundly ignored.”

    Our local trolls insist the govt only “suggested” some be censored under the guise of ‘misinformation’. The twitter files prove the government was, ‘suggesting’ censoring misinformation, AFTER twitter told them the tweets were accurate, and local, not foreign interference.

    That goes back full circle. Under what Constitutional power were the multitude of govt agencies operating?
    Like the Abbot and Costello skit……THIRD BASE!……National Security.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZksQd2fC6Y

    It is not a coincidence, ALL this abuse of power totters on apparition of National Security.
    Like thousands of years ago, when leaders depended on Seers and Oracles to couch their decisions. the DoJ, instantly wraps themselves in the invisibility cloak of National Security.

    1. Iowan2 – The government “suggests” censorship in the same way the mafia “suggests” you give them money so nothing bad happens to you or your business.

      1. oldmanfromkansas,
        Yes the notion the left insists that all of these 80 FBI agents, and more govt personal for other govt agencies, along with powerful congressional committee chairs, were not asserting pressure, is nothing but pure trolling,

        It is imperative we, reality based commenters, focus on the Constitution and demand the govt identify some enumerated Constitutional power, that supported their actions.
        It is important we understand the 1st amendment is a brake on Government interference.
        What constitutional power was the FBI etal agencies, and Congressional leaders basing their actions?

        This keeps the discussion out of the weeds and centered on the Constitution.

        1. It is important we understand the 1st amendment is a brake on Government interference.

          True, so even if they can identify a power enumerated in the Constitution, that power cannot be exercised in violation of the First Amendment. These days the federal government can usually find some alleged constitutional authority to justify its actions. Therefore, I believe pointing to the First Amendment is a stronger defense against such actions than suggesting there is no enumerated power.

  8. I never thought I had a particularly sharp BS detector, but it has always amazed me that any Homo sapiens with a brain and ability to walk upright ever believed a word Adam Schiff said….much less voted for him.

  11. DEM/WASHINGTON POLITICAL ELITE and MEDIA LIES LIES LIES – DEMS/CLINTON CROWD/SOROS CROWD. ALL should be exposed and where any legal actions can be taken or sue them would be nice.

  12. It’s exactly what we thought was happening laid out clearly in black and white – they all knew what they were doing but justified it as necessary to get rid of evil Trump.

  13. I agree in spades: How is Blumenthal even in Congress —- ‘Stolen Valor’ is a major disgrace: ask anyone who actually was on Vietnam soil — they despise anyone who claims to have served in the 60’s or 70’s in Vietnam who weren’t there. Then to add insult to injury, this guy Blumenthal runs for the Senate and his lie propels his campaign — and now George Santos is getting the liars treatment — as he should. When are lies OK to minimize? Ask Joe Biden about how documents got into 3 locations under his control — when is that OK?

  14. The department of “Trust and Safety” sounds like it’s straight out of 1984 or a 1960s dystopian movie.

  15. We keep getting validation of what we all knew was happening.
    A lie, created by the Democrat Party. That includes the media. The group of liars also include a whole cabal of lawyers, adding their gravitas to the lies. Lawyers knowingly pushing lies. And of course the FBI/DoJ, Intelligence community, and the State Department. All the assorted Govt agencies creating and pushing political propaganda. All directed by Clinton’s wife, and various other political actors, like Schiff

    1. eric holder, lois lerner and other progressives government appointees/employees did the heavy lifting Without them the agencies would not be (as) corrupt. Hard to say if bj clinton started the corruption or if it was obama. hillary clinton definitely used it.

      1. Why are there so many democrats with REAL scandals ?

        Holder, Lerhner, Schiff, Swalwell. Feinstein, Porter, Blumenthal, Biden, Warren, Franken, Clinton, Clinton, Deutch, Petreaus, Weiner, Porteus, Hill, Conyers,

    2. Opps. Forgot a huge factor.

      The DoJ/FBI pushed all of these known lies by hiding behind National Security Interest. Thsoat is the umbrella used by the DoJ to ignore Constitutional restrictions on the government doing illegal searches.

      Not a coincidence the current lie about classified documents is also being pushed as a National Security Investigation. (except Biden of course) That same cabal of actors pushing the Russia! Russia!! RUSSIA!!! scam, are pushing this classified document scam. (including the local trolls)

    3. One more post script

      This is made possible by the Patriot Act which created and then corrupted the FISA court, and FISA Judges. This is overseen by the Chief Justice of the United States.
      John Roberts has taken no actions against Judges that have ceased to apply critical thought to warrants presented to them. Roberts needs to get the Judges to start rejecting the FBI baseless claims.

      1. Throughout history, crises are always used to increase (central) government power. In the US, the power of the federal government grew starting with the civil war. The 9/11 attack gave us the Patriot Act which is renewed every time since. We gave up freedom for security which was presented as a reasonable and sensible exchange. It is time for Congress to repeal (at least large parts of) the Patriot Act. A secret court (FISA) comes directly out of Kafka and should never have been introduced. I agree that the FISA court just rubber-stamps whatever warrant is requested by the FBI, which proves that it must go.

    4. The critical actor is the NYT which still sets the terms of discussion for the rest of the MSM. The whole Washington cabal knows that the NYT will push their narratives, ignore their falsehoods, and excuse or soft-pedal their defalcations when uncovered.

  16. Liars lie, stupid people blindly accept lies without question. Stupid people are the problem.

      1. As the saying goes these days,
        We need new conspiracies, because all our old ones proved to be true! The leftist are pathological liars, proving most have some degree of mental illness. As a population, they are most likely to be on antidepressants & antianxiety medications. And in worse cases, be on antipsychotics meds. The elitist in that group, are largely narcissistic, sociopaths, or outright psychopath’s. Just look up the definition of all those terms. The inmates are really running the asylums, Congress, Lame stream media, Academia, & government agencies.

        1. “We need new conspiracies, because all our old ones proved to be true!”

          I have a t-shirt with that quote. I get a lot of stares when I wear it. 😉

    2. Anonymous wrote, “Liars lie, stupid people blindly accept lies without question.”

      First this Anonymous starts with an unethical rationalization (yes saying “liars lie” in this context is the 1A Ethics Surrender, or “We can’t stop it.” unethical rationalization), and then this Anonymous uses a form of the 36. The Patsy’s Rebuke, or “It’s not my fault that you’re stupid!” unethical rationalization with the statement “stupid people blindly accept lies without question”.

      So this Anonymous is a rationalizing fool, so be it, but then this rationalizing fool takes another step over the metaphorical cliff and dives straight into an immoral abyss of pure delusion with the conclusion.

      Anonymous wrote, “Stupid people are the problem.”

      It’s interesting; this Anonymous blames the consumers of lies because they’re stupid not the actual purveyors of lies. Yes the fact that stupid people are stupid is an issue but it’s not the problem. That shifting of blame is evil, as in profoundly immoral and wicked.

      Overall, that 14 word comment from this Anonymous is some genuine in-your-face signature significance and gives us a glimpse straight into the moral character of the commenter. Signature significance posits that a single act can be so remarkable that it has predictive and analytical value, and should not be dismissed as statistically insignificant.

      Anonymous has show us in 14 words how not to communicate on a comment forum. Good job Anonymous.

      3. Your very first paragraph makes no sense. You could say “liars lie” is tautological, but ethical surrender? What am I surrendering? I believe in free speech, liars can lie and do – intelligent people need to be discerning. In case you are wondering, my original comment is directed at people like you.

        1. “I believe in free speech”

          ATS, you believe in free speech, as others believe in free hotdogs after they ate them all.

          1. I bet you “think” you got me with that. Where do I propose limiting speech? Doh!

            1. ATS, you have shown your disdain for free speech throughout this blog whether it be a discussion on censorship or anything else. Live with it.

    3. Anonymous: “Stupid people are the problem.”

      I agree that they are part of the problem, but smart people might be worse. I present the faculty of Harvard as exhibit A.

      1. Ah, what a brilliant reply, but that should be readily accepted from the philosopher named Diogenes.

        “Alexander the Great visited Diogenes, who was then sitting in the sun. Alexander asked Diogenes what he, Alexander, the world conqueror, could do for Diogenes, a famous, but impoverished, philosopher. Diogenes replied, “Move aside. You are blocking my sun.” 🙂

    4. We are all stupid, in the sense that the world is too complex to understand fully. That is why it is a good idea to listen to people who speak quietly and rationally. They can open our minds slightly. Try listening to Dennis Prager for a few days.

  18. What we are seeing is selective emails which Musk wants selected journalists who already share his narrative believe. We do not hear about anything going on at Twitter today – Musk has all his employees on a non-disclosure agreement and severe threats of litigation for violating them. We do not hear what efforts Trump officials and Republicans made to shape twitter’s views.

    The result is that Tiabbi (and Turley) are doing free public relations work for a multi-billionaire.

    1. What did you see before. when you unquestioningly accepted what these liars said?

      seriously, this is a moronic point.

    3. The liars can always present their side and evidence for their lies. Hold your breath, America needs less stupid people.

    5. “What we are seeing is selective emails which Musk wants”

      So ?

      This is typical left wing nonsense – when the truth is damaging, Attack those telling the Truth.

      How are you different from those in the FBI trying to suppress stories damaging to Democrats ?

      No, Musk is not allowing Journalists to report everything.
      What is being reported is still true.

      And sometimes the Truth is free PR.

    6. If Hitler (or Trump) said you should buy an electric car – I will bet you would go out and buy the biggest gas guzzler you could find.

      Your more interested in the who than the facts.

    7. “What we are seeing is selective emails . . .”

      More Leftist decoys.

      You can always tell when JT has in his crosshairs a topic sensitive to the Left. It deploys its full arsenal of decoys. (A smear is a type of decoy.)

      Those decoys are intended to distract and deceive you. Ignore them. Stay on the target.

    8. You’re whatabouting this? Seriously? After seeing the emails from our employees in government to Twitter employees to ask them to silence people like you, you’re trying to turn the tables on a private citizen like Musk? Who cares what he does with his employees? As for your, “We do not hear what efforts Trump officials and Republicans made to shape twitter’s views.” That’s a decent question, but what do you think about what Schiff, net worth $2 million, and Blumenthal, net worth $85 million, did? Are you doing free public relations for these multi-millionaires.

      The Twitter files deal exclusively with GERMANE tweets and emails from our employees to Twitter employees that a journalist selected to show some bad behavior by our employees. My guess is you’re trying to say that these emails are taken out of context. If that’s the case, we need to call on our employees to put them back in context. They won’t, or if Schiff and Blumenthal do, the track record of these multi-millionaires does not suggest that they will be honest.

  20. The “Stolen Valor” senator from Connecticut, who lied about having served “in” (rather than during) Vietnam, deserves the Congressional Meddle of Honor.

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