Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has threatened to sue a publication after it revealed details of his tax returns, which he had sent to them by mistake.
According to Lagniappe Daily, which broke the original story, “In a cease-and-desist letter emailed Saturday afternoon, the former Auburn coach’s attorneys demanded the article be removed, accused Lagniappe of ‘unlawfully accessing’ the information.” The letter further “claimed it was illegally published without Tuberville’s consent, and … it was not protected speech under the First Amendment.”
I want this to go to court so the defendant can cite the precedential case Finders v. Keepers
Lots of shit gets published without consent from the subjects. That’s how news works. If we had to get consent from the subjects on everything, it’d be propaganda.
it’d be propaganda
Which is exactly what they want. Make it illegal to publish anything about any GOP politician without their permission.
How about arrest his ass for voting in Florida when he lived in Alabama…shut that ignorant asshole up
Tuberville is the dumbest person in Congress, and that’s a very tight race since Gohmert retired.
Remember when Bob Menendez hid their ill-begotten gold bars from Egypt in their jacket embroidered with the name “Bob Menendez”…
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I dislike this turd as much as the next guy but honestly, the newspaper shouldn’t have published and it’s fair enough he sent a cease and desist notice.
If it were AOC’s private information being published in this way you’d be outraged.
A cease and desist says stop fucking around or I’ll take legal action.
Everyone has emailed the wrong thing to the wrong person before.
If someone sends you something by mistake then if you’re unable to disregard it completely then the bare minimum standard is to contact them or their representative and ensure they’re aware.
Have you seen how conservative propaganda handled Hunter Biden (not a public figure or politician) and the private files on his private computer?
If AOC had emailed her tax info out you know damn well that Fox, Newsmax and the rest of the GOP propaganda machine would not have hesitated to publish every detail and it would be her own damned fault. The idea that the Republicans would ever abide by anything resembling a political golden rule is credulous at best and it is one of the things that has created the right wing control of all three branches of government .
Tuberville is the very incarnation of stupid, created his own problem and deserves every bit of it. Now he’s going to learn about the Streisand Effect and he’ll deserve that too.
Nah, fuck that. If you are stupid enough to send sensitive information to the literal body who’s job it is to post information, then this is how it works.
If it were AOC, I would absolutely believe they should be posted. I think it should be required that every individual that holds an elected position in government should be required to share this information publicly. I extra agree with it for people that are the shittiest.
Tuberville is a cunt, and he should have not been an idiot. Cease and desist means fuck all when someone voluntarily hands over information.
There is no legal action to be taken - the cease and desist is an empty threat. If the tax returns were sent by him to the newspaper, they can report on them.
An equivalent story is the guy from the Atlantic being added to the signal group chat.
Many politicians voluntarily release their tax returns. Doing so accidentally is obviously not great, but threatening legal action to prevent reporting on them is a red flag.
Hard disagree. Politicians represent the people, their finances - including investments - should be transparent and immediately available.
That is the only way to ensure corruption is reduced.
Yep. Politicians’ (and candidates’) tax returns should be public … and so should ALL their financial information as well. We should be looking at any politician’s bank statements and stock transactions and credit card transactions and utility bills anytime we want, available instantly, as soon as they happen. They should be required to report how much cash is in their wallet on a daily basis. We should be able to tell whether or not they’re subscribed to Netflix and where they stopped for breakfast this morning. And if you don’t want that huge invasion of privacy: no problem – just don’t run for office.
No, that’s fucking stupid. People, even politicians should be allowed a level of privacy. It doesn’t matter to you at all if they have netflix, and if it does, go see a therapist.
Tax statements and any trade information should absolutely be public knowledge. Monitoring someone’s cash and credit card statements is some predator level shit.
You’re acting like becoming a politician isn’t an active choice.
Just because it’s a choice doesn’t mean every single detail of their lives needs to be public. Why should you or the public care at all if an elected official has Netflix? Why does it matter if they have $500 cash in their wallet? Do you need to know every time they take a shit and what time they go to sleep? No. None of that is information that matters at all.
There absolutely needs to be more transparency, but asking for literally everything is fucking dumb.
People, even politicians should be allowed a level of privacy.
No, not politicians. They should have to sacrifice their privacy in return for power. Because the risk of corruption is too high. Leave nowhere for it to hide, nowhere at all.
Yes, corruption via their Netflix subscription. Dumb take.
You also want cameras in their bathrooms so they aren’t making secret deals while they shit? Gotta cover all your creepy bases.
Why collect taxes either? Before you know it they’ll just take 100% of your paycheck!
You see how stupid the slippery slope fallacy is as a rhetorical device?
What does this have to do at all with what I said? There are things that should be transparent, and others that don’t matter. If someone has Netflix, that doesn’t matter. This isn’t about slippery slopes, it’s about common sense privacy that every person is entitled to.
A cease and desist says stop fucking around or I’ll take legal action.
Take what legal action? The news outlet violated no laws here.
