Journalists Defend Matt Taibbi After House Democrat Sends Him Letter Warning of Five-Year Prison Sentence For Perjury

The ranking member of the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), raised eyebrows on Thursday after she sent independent journalist Matt Taibbi a letter asking if he would like to correct his under-oath testimony before her committee and noted the five-year jail sentence for perjury.

Plaskett noted an error Taibbi made in his ‘Twitter Files’ reporting, which was very publicly called out by MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan. Taibbi acknowledged the error – mistaking the government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency with the privately run Center for Internet Security – and issued a correction.

In her letter, Plaskett argues that Taibbi’s Congressional testimony was “contradicted by your own admission.”

“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. In light of the potential for such serious consequences, I would like to offer you the opportunity to correct your statements before the panel,” she added.

Her letter concluded by noting Taibbi had signed a document certifying he would tell the truth and the legal ramifications for not doing so:

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).

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.

The letter laying out the punishment for perjury prompted a backlash online from some prominent journalists. The Intercept’s Ryan Grim commented, “Dem Rep. Stacey Plaskett is threatening @mtaibbi with prison over his Twitter Files testimony. The testimony is actually accurate-though she’s referring to an error in a tweet that’s been corrected.”

“That’s beside the point: To call for a reporter to be jailed is beyond the pale,” Grim argued and also called for Plaskett to resign.

Former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter also blasted the letter, writing, “Lawmakers should not be sending these kinds of letters to journalists. Ironic this is from a “weaponization” committee member.”

Lee Fang, a journalist who also worked on the “Twitter Files,” reported on the letter and added, “Mehdi’s viral deception that Taibbi lied under oath about DHS/CISA now has House Dems explicitly threatening Taibbi w/ imprisonment. Taibbi was accurate in this quote, yet here’s a letter from Rep. Stacey Plaskett citing Mehdi to float a threat of 5 years of jail against Taibbi.”

Fang also reported that Seth Stern, the director of advocacy with the Freedom of the Press Foundation, immediately condemned the letter. “It’s disturbing that a member of Congress would attempt to threaten a journalist with imprisonment for summarizing his reporting during a congressional hearing It seems apparent that she had no good faith basis to threaten a perjury prosecution and that the threat is an intimidation tactic,” Stern said in a statement.