Giuliani attack on Twitter prompts backlash

By Owen Daugherty - 12/04/18 08:58 PM EST
 

President TrumpDonald John TrumpDavid Axelrod after Ginsburg cancer treatment: Supreme Court vacancy could 'tear this country apart' EU says it will 'respond in kind' if US slaps tariffs on France Ginsburg again leaves Supreme Court with an uncertain future MORE’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed Tuesday that Twitter allowed someone to hack his tweet to plant a hyperlink to a site critical of Trump.

In a tweet sent on Nov. 30, Giuliani took shots at special counsel Robert MuellerRobert (Bob) Swan MuellerMueller report fades from political conversation Trump calls for probe of Obama book deal Democrats express private disappointment with Mueller testimony MORE, calling for “supervision” of his investigation because he filed indictments at inconvenient times for Trump.

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The link Giuliani included in his tweet redirected straight to a page displaying only the words “Donald J. Trump is a traitor to our country.”

Four days later, Giuliani acknowledged the link and blamed Twitter.

“Twitter allowed someone to invade my text with a disgusting anti-President message,” he tweeted Tuesday evening. 

Social media users pointed out that what likely happened was that someone bought a domain name matching the inadvertent link for the purpose of posting an anti-Trump message to troll Giuliani. 

Twitter users were left scratching their heads at Giuliani's statement. 

A spokesperson for Twitter told The Hill that any suggestion that the platform artificially injects anything into someone's tweet is false and that the service worked as designed.
 
The missing space after a period in Giuliani's tweet created a clickable link because .in is the top domain for India, the spokesperson added.

Updated on Dec. 5 at 10:13 a.m.

Tags Robert Mueller Brian Schatz Donald Trump