In a new McCarthyite low, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the leading Democrat member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wants to have the Twitter messages between a Wikileaks lawyer from the U.S. and her client. Feinstein has been demanding more information from Facebook and Twitter about Russian users on their sites. For that reason, in Feinstein’s recent letter to Twitter, she has asked for “All content of each Direct Messages greater than 180 days old between each Requested Account” and she lists “@granmarga” as a Twitter account for which messages should be revealed.

However, the Twitter account @granmarga belongs to Wikileaks lawyer Margaret Kunstler, who posted this message identifying herself as a Wikileaks lawyer. Her identity can be confirmed because the article that she tweeted out identifies herself as an attorney for Wikileaks who is writing in support of that organization, in an article entitled, “Wikileaks Attorneys Blast Citizen Four Maker Poitras.” It should be noted that Kunstler is a New York civil rights attorney with the law firm HRBEK Law, according to their website. The site notes that Kunstler “has spent her career providing movement support and protecting the rights of activists.”

It is unclear why Kunstler and not the other lawyers for Wikileaks are being targeted, but it seems to be yet a new low in the descent to unfair investigatory and accusatory methods that the committees “investigating” Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential campaign have gone to. Such methods may also be found in the McCarthyism of the investigations made by Senator McCarthy himself up to 1954, and the hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the same era.

Contact Steve Cunningham at stevecunningham@juno.com