Trump's State Department reportedly launched a full-fledged investigation to find out which employee liked a Chelsea Clinton tweet
Back in 2017, Chelsea Clinton sent a tweet criticizing President Trump over his decision to have his daughter, Ivanka Trump, at a Group of 20 meeting. Soon after, the State Department — led by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the time — launched a weeks-long investigation.
The department discovered that the official Twitter account for the U.S. mission to the European Union had liked the tweet, which led to the department interviewing nearly 10 administrators of the account about whether they mistakenly or deliberately hit the button, The Daily Beast reports. A source familiar with the exchange said the State Department officials leading the inquiry "wanted blood" but all the staffers interviewed denied any involvement. Eventually, the account's access was restricted to just two people.
The incident, which became known as the "Chelsea Clinton thing," contributed to a growing sense of paranoia within the White House that still exists today, in which Trump aides try to scope out who might be trying to undermine the president, per The Daily Beast.
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Alas, in this instance, the State Department was never able to determine who liked the tweet, and the culprit remains at large. Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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