Roger Stone has been banned from Twitter permanently after a vulgar meltdown Friday aimed at CNN reporters, which included threats, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The close friend and former adviser to Donald Trump went on a tirade after CNN reported Robert Mueller approved the first charges into his investigation on the Russian meddling of the 2016 presidential election.
A spokesperson for Twitter said the company did not comment on individual accounts.
However, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told The Hollywood Reporter the suspension is permanent.
“We believe in freedom of expression and in speaking truth to power, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up,” the source said. “In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we do not tolerate behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.”
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Stone later vowed to bring legal action against the social media platform, though he did not specify beyond saying he was communicating with “prominent telecommunication attorneys.”
“The battle against free speech has just begun,” Stone told Politico in response to the ban. “This is a strange way to do business and part and parcel of the systematic effort by the tech left to censor and silence conservative voices.”
Stone, who has been suspended before for violations of Twitter rules, added that he was told his suspension would last for “three hours and 22 minutes” and was not informed of a permanent ban.
Although Stone’s account is gone, some of his tweets were embedded by news outlets in stories, so the text remains.
“.@donlemon stop lying about about the Clinton’s and Uranium you ignorant lying covksucker !!!! You fake news you dumb piece of shit,” Stone wrote in a tweet. “.@jaketapper must be held accountable for his lies and very severely punished #Fakenewsasswipe.”
Oct. 29, 7:40 a.m. Updated with Stone’s legal comments.
