Journalist Booted from X After Publishing Hacked Vance Document

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein was suspended Thursday from the social platform X after sharing materials about Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) that were allegedly obtained in an Iranian hack on former President Trump’s campaign. 

Klippenstein published the 271-page report compiled by the Trump campaign to vet Vance, now the Republican nominee’s running mate, on his Substack.

An X spokesperson said in a statement that the journalist’s account was suspended for posting “unredacted private personal information” about Vance.

“Ken Klippenstein was temporarily suspended for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information, specifically Sen. Vance’s physical addresses and the majority of his Social Security number,” the spokesperson said.

The Trump campaign revealed last month that it had been hacked and internal documents had been leaked. The FBI later confirmed that Iran was behind the breach and that the country had attempted to disrupt both presidential campaigns.

The documents were shared with various media outlets, but they opted not to publish the stolen materials.

Iran also attempted to share the materialswith the Biden campaign, the FBI revealed last week. However, the Harris campaign said its staffers ignored what appeared to be phishing emails sent by Iran to their personal emails.

Klippenstein explained his decision to publish the stolen materials on his Substack, arguing that “it’s of keen public interest in an election season.”

“Since June, the news media has been sitting on it (and other documents), declining to publish in fear of finding itself at odds with the government’s campaign against ‘foreign malign influence,’” he wrote.

“I’m just not a believer of the news media as an arm of the government, doing its work combatting foreign influence,” he later added. “Nor should it be a gatekeeper of what the public should know.”

For more than two months, hackers who the U.S. says are tied to Iran have tried to persuade the American media to cover files they stole. No outlets took the bait.

But on Thursday, reporter Ken Klippenstein, who self-publishes on Substack after he left The Intercept this year, published one of the files.

“If the document had been hacked by some ‘anonymous’ like hacker group, the news media would be all over it. I’m just not a believer of the news media as an arm of the government, doing its work combating foreign influence. Nor should it be a gatekeeper of what the public should know,” he wrote.

Publication of the document reflects how a shifting media ecosystem featuring more high-profile independent journalists on platforms like Substack can influence the ability of state-sponsored hackers to carry out election influence operations.

By The Hill