The latest "Twitter Files" this week should subject Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to criminal prosecution for violating the First Amendment in his continued "coup" against former President Donald Trump, according to retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer on Newsmax.
"Look, this is clearly illegal: It's actually covered in Title 18, deprivation of rights under the color of law," Shaffer told Saturday's "Wake Up America" host Carl Higbie, pointing to the evidence Schiff sought to have Twitter ban journalist Paul Sperry during Trump's presidency.
"What you described is exactly what is illegal. Adam Schiff decided to use the federal government as a venue to actually not only suppress information, carry out what I consider a coup against a sitting president, which was the Russia collusion narrative and the impeachment."
Shaffer referenced U.S. code that reads explicitly: "Section 242 of Title 18 makes it a crime for a person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States."
"Let's be very clear on this: It talks about it being a crime to act under the color of law — that is to say — that you use your authority as a federal authority, or official, or a member of Congress to deprive you and me and Paul Sperry of his constitutional right as you just defined it," Shaffer told Higbie, who brought the First Amendment letter of law to the discussion.
"There's no gray area here, Carl. It's black and white, and it's a clear violation, so there's no doubt."
Higbie doubted President Joe Biden's administration will never bring a Democrat to account for brazenly breaking the law to help Biden get elected, and Shaffer agreed, but said the transparency still needs to be exposed in the plot against Trump.
"The honest answer is I think a lot of us are going to go and define this as clearly as we can as illegal," Shaffer said. "We're going to provide you, the audience that we serve here, and others, clear and precise information that shows that this was something that should be prosecuted.
"But the sad answer is, Carl, probably not because you have a corrupt president in the form of Joe Biden, who has his own issues which are going to be investigated. You have a corrupt Justice Department under Merrick Garland who will not investigate anybody of his party.
"That is to say the Democrats have a free ride."
The House GOP majority is going to conduct oversight, but as we have seen the Justice Department under the president has the discretion on what is pursued, according to Shaffer.
"Until we see someone come in, probably in 2024, or you reestablish control of the executive branch of the government, all of this is going to sit on the back burner," he continued. "With that said, there's no reason to not go through it. I trust Jim Jordan. I know Jim is going to go through and do a thorough investigation. I know Andy Biggs. I know Scott Perry. They're all going to do their best to get information critical to showing how badly our rights were violated as the American people, and be able to start teeing this stuff up for other federal agencies to pick up in 2024."
Shaffer said, despite not being mentioned yet in the Twitter Files, his own rights were violated by censorship, having questioned the potential FBI animation of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, perhaps even using "go into the Capitol" operative Ray Epps as a provocateur.
"The day I started trolling Ray Epps, I was suspended permanently, so I have no doubt that the FBI or someone behind the scenes went to Twitter back then and said, 'You need to get Shaffer off there,'" Shaffer told Higbie. "And I've been off permanently since then.
"This is deprivation of rights, but I find it completely baffling is the FBI did it, admitting, 'Oh, yeah, we do this with all the social media companies; this is routine.' O.K., you just admitted to multiple felonies to the American people, and it's something that, again, it needs to stop immediately.
"And then there's those who actually set up these policies, engaged in them, need to be held accountable."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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