Chris Cekot reports:
State prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena ordering the social networking service Twitter to reveal the names of two bloggers critical of Attorney General Tom Corbett and his investigation into public corruption in the state Legislature.
The subpoena, which threatened Twitter’s custodian of records with arrest for noncompliance, was withdrawn after former House Democratic staffer Brett Cott received a sentence Friday of 21 months to five years in state prison on felony theft, conflict of interest and conspiracy charges.
The state attorney general’s office says it was trying to get information that would have shown Cott had no remorse for his crimes.
“The reasons for the subpoena were legal reasons that are allowed by law and had nothing to do with blogs or tweets that were critical of people. We have no interest in that whatsoever,” Senior Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo said.
And apparently little interest in the First Amendment, either. He’s upset because he thinks Cott shows no remorse – if Cott is behind the CasablancaPA blog. I’m upset that Corbett shows absolutely no remorse for being willing to ride roughshod over the protections of the right to anonymous speech. C’mon, Mr. I-Wanna-Be-Governor: at least pretend you care about the First Amendment.
Read the rest of the news story on WHTM. Reactions from the bloggers Corbett sought to unmask can be found on their blog, CasablancaPA.