Pennsylvania AG Issues Subpoena for IDs of Two Twitter Critics
Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett has subpoenaed subscriber information about two Twitter users who criticized his “Bonusgate” investigation of legislative corruption.
Corbett, the Republican candidate for governor, wants information about the accounts @bfbarbie and @CasablancaPA, according to stories by Threat Level, Tech Crunch, PennLive.com and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The two Twitter accounts questioned whether Corbett was using his power to prosecute political opponents.
The tweets criticized Bonusgate trials of 25 former and current state lawmakers charged with using taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes, PennLive.com says. Threat Level and Tech Crunch published this Tweet from a person identified as Signor Ferrari, a Casablanca character, at CasablancaPA: “Is it wrong to mix campaign work with taxpayer business? Apparently not when Tom Corbett does it.”
A sentencing memorandum says Signor Ferrari is Brett Cott, a former legislative aide who was convicted on charges of theft of service, conflict of interest and conspiracy to commit conflict of interest, according to the Post-Gazette. The document says Cott is using the blog to “deny responsibility for his criminal conduct and to attack and malign the investigative and prosecutorial process.”
Signor Ferrari gave an interview to Threat Level. “It doesn’t really matter why we are criticizing him,” he said. “It’s our First Amendment right to criticize him no matter who we are.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania is representing CasablancaPA.
