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Critics assail Corbett’s Twitter subpoena, as ACLU gets involved

The criticism over Attorney General Tom Corbett’s decision to subpoena Twitter for information about two online critics quickly escalated to a fever pitch Thursday, with Corbett’s Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial race chiming in and the American Civil Liberties Union saying it would represent the two anonymous Tweeters.

Barely a day after news of the subpoena first broke, the atmosphere seemed very much a repeat of Corbett’s decision to join in a lawsuit trying to block the new health care law. Democrats feel increasingly emboldened in their efforts to paint Corbett, the Republican nominee for governor, as using his office for political gain.

Fresh off his own primary victory, Democrat Dan Onorato called his opponent’s use of the power of subpoena “completely outrageous.”

“You can’t subpoena somebody if they say something negative about you,” Onorato told reporters in Philadelphia, according to The Daily News. “It’s the nature of the beast. To me, that’s using your office in a political way.”

Corbett’s office tried to push back against that narrative. With it having been reported that CassablancaPA, a blog fiercely critical of Corbett and associated with at least one of the two Twitter accounts, is run by the legislative aide Brett Cott, Corbett’s office was indicated that the information being subpoenaed was important to sentencing proceedings that were under way Friday. Cott, a former legislative aide in the House Democratic Caucus, was convicted on three of 42 charges brought against him in Corbett’s Bonusgate corruption probe. He was sentenced to serve 21 to 60 months in prison Friday morning.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office told The Inquirer that the subpoena had “nothing to do with limiting critics.”

Meanwhile, the ACLU said it would represented whoever was behind the two Twitter accounts targeted by the subpoena—a subpoena the micro-blogging service is reportedly fighting.

“Any subpoena seeking to unmask the identity of anonymous critics raises the specter of political retaliation,” Witold Walczak, the legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. “It’s a prized American right to criticize government officials, and to do so anonymously.”

May 21, 2010 at 12:02 pm

--pa2010.com Staff

Tags: Dan Onorato, Tom Corbett

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