Democrat threatens 'Twitter Files' journalist Taibbi with jail time for alleged perjury

"Twitter files" journalist Matt Taibbi faced threats of possible jail time from the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Select-Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

Taibbi testified before the House Judiciary Committee on March 9.

Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic delegate from the Virgin Islands, has informed him that an error in his reporting, to which he has since admitted, could warrant up to five years in prison, according to Fox News, which obtained a letter Plaskett wrote to Taibbi.

Taibbi wrote "CISA" instead of "CIS" when referencing the private Center for Internet Freedom. CISA is the government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

"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," she wrote. "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),'" she continued.

"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," Plaskett went on.

Taibbi was one of a handful of journalists to whom Twitter CEO Elon Musk granted access to the company's records. He released his work as part of a series of reports dubbed the "Twitter Files" that showcased the relationship between federal agencies and social media platforms.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.