On Tuesday, journalist Matt Taibbi, acting on behalf of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, dropped “Twitter Files” #11 and #12, internal documents that tell the story of how government agencies wormed their way into Twitter to get them to “find” Russian election interference and identify posts they found problematic. Another critical aspect of the story is the activity of Democrat legislators to get Twitter and other social media platforms to ban accounts of people they didn’t like.

‘The Unscrupulous Chairman Schiff’

California Rep. Adam Schiff, then-head of the House Intelligence Committee, specifically called for Twitter to ban independent journalist Paul Sperry. Sperry is one of our go-to reporters on the Deep State, someone who can be counted on for facts and insight. (Our sources are only the most reliable, as we would never allow ourselves to traffic in “fake news.”) Sperry has exposed multiple examples of Schiff lying and disgracing himself — for example, the lie about his office not having had contact with the “whistleblower” whose complaint about Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy led to Impeachment #1.

So it’s no surprise that Schiff would want to exploit his own influence over social media to shut Sperry up. Schiff even suggested that Sperry had promoted QAnon conspiracies, which Sperry has never done. “This is a scurrilous smear,” Sperry told the New York Post, “but par for the course for the unscrupulous Chairman Schiff.”

As we reported Wednesday, Matt Taibbi said, “They [Twitter] also received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned. Here, the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry.”

As Sean Hannity said Wednesday evening, Sperry is back on Twitter (thank you, Elon Musk), teasing this: “DEVELOPING: I’m told a major investigative story by a dozen of Washington press corps is set to drop next week exposing MSM collusion in Russiagate hoax. Insider account will name names — prominent D.C. reporters. Revelations include secret NYT [New York Times] meetings w/ [deputy FBI Director Andrew] McCabe, hotline w/ [FBI lead agent Peter] Strzok.” So we’ll look forward to that.

This is ‘Probably a Lot Deeper’

Former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee — and current head of Truth Social, created by President Trump after he himself was banned from Twitter — Devin Nunes said on Hannity’s show that although it was known people were being “shadow-banned” on Twitter and other social media platforms, we didn’t have evidence until now that actual members of Congress — “who were supposed to be there to defend the First Amendment” — were involved in getting reporters and others banned.

“I think this is probably a lot deeper,” Nunes said, “and we’ll find out a lot more as this continues to go on.” He touched on a related topic, the current stall in the House as Republicans choose a new Speaker, saying, “Investigations have to move forward. There is so much that has to be done, if you look at the fiasco around January 6 and Pelosi’s involvement, you look at Twitter, you look at Facebook, you look at all the Big Tech companies, you look at the shenanigans at the DOJ and the FBI, time is wasting here. And they need to get to work and get [with] these investigations.” Subpoenas should have gone out on Wednesday, he said.

Pam Bondi seconded that, saying Kevin McCarthy needed to be sworn in as Speaker right away “so they can unleash Jim Jordan [as chair of the House Judiciary Committee] to continue and to start all of these new investigations. No media, whether mainstream or social media, should ever be used as a weapon by politicians to silence free speech.” She reminded viewers that she’d been on the floor of the Senate defending President Trump “when Adam Schiff was trying to impeach him, unsuccessfully, of course, by using a fake whistleblower.”

While this was going on, she said, Paul Sperry was exposing Schiff’s story as a lie. No wonder Schiff wanted him silenced!

She called this a “vendetta” by Schiff. This is definitely something the Judiciary Committee needs to investigate. “…Free speech is all we’ve got in our country,” she said. “We are a democratic society. We are America…Every American, Democrat and Republican alike, should be calling for an investigation right now of Adam Schiff.”

Drop-kick Schiff From the Intel Committee

We would add that in the meantime, Schiff needs to be drop-kicked off the Intel Committee. Tristan Justice at The Federalist made the case for this — a couple of months ago, before we even had this latest disgraceful piece of information about Schiff.

We knew after the November election that Schiff would no longer chair that committee because Democrats had lost all those leadership positions. But that’s not good enough. Kevin McCarthy, who at that time was assumed to be the next Speaker (sigh), told FOX NEWS’ Maria Bartiromo that both Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell would be removed from their committee assignments. Discussion of this had gone on for months; McCarthy had promised it last January.

Side note: It’s hard to believe Swalwell still has his assignments after having been intimately involved with a Chinese spy. “Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the public sector,” McCarthy said. “Why would we ever give him a security clearance and the secrets to America?” Look at what he’s involved in.

The Democrats’ Conspiracy Point Man

But back to Schiff. “By the time Trump captured the White House,” Justice wrote, “Schiff had become the Democrats’ point man on their prime conspiracy to take down the President and undermine democracy in the form of the Russia hoax.” Like a political shill straight out of “The Manchurian Candidate,” Schiff maintained for many months that he had evidence (“more than circumstantial”) that Trump had colluded with Russia. He never presented this, of course — there was no such evidence, as a special counsel investigation determined — but he has not yet been held accountable for his lies.

When the Russia hoax fizzled, Schiff fabricated another narrative, reciting his own fictional “transcript” in September 2019 of the call President Trump had with Zelenskyy to frame him for something he had not done; namely, pressure Zelenskyy to investigate the Bidens. The media, of course, ran with his fake story. Schiff went on to become an impeachment manager for the impeachment he had engineered.

This summer, during the Kangaroo Kommittee’s “show trial,” Schiff pulled a similar stunt again, going on CNN to say, “We’ll show evidence of the President’s involvement in this scheme [implying some sneaky attempt on Trump’s part to prevent election certification].” In his zeal to fabricate useful narratives, he even doctored text messages between Republican congressmen Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan to change the meaning. Even the “Kommittee” had to admit this was done. Justice’s story has the details.

Will Accountability Finally Come For Schiff?

So, what else should happen to Schiff? As Justice wrote, “Booting Schiff from his gig as chairman of the Intelligence Committee is just the start of said accountability. Cutting his time short on the committee altogether is the bare minimum.” We have to agree that it would be irresponsible not to kick him off. And now that we know he was also unlawfully pressuring social media to violate Americans’ First Amendment rights, perhaps there’s more that can be done to hold him accountable. If only his constituents would do that at the ballot box…but they won’t, and here’s why.

By the way, in case you missed this and would like to read some reliably accurate reporting, here’s Paul Sperry’s latest on more lies from the FBI. For when you have time.

Finally, here’s Sperry’s tweeted response to Schiff.

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.

Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.