Tippecanoe Council member turns up in ‘Twitter Files’ mix-up: ‘Who do I sue?’

New reporting in Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’ pins election denying tweets on longtime Tippecanoe County Council member. Problem is, this John Basham doesn’t even have a Twitter account

Thanks to sponsor Stuart & Branigin for support to help make this edition of the Based in Lafayette reporting project possible.

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I’m not sure anyone around here had this on their 2022 bingo card: Longtime Tippecanoe County Council member John Basham’s name surfaced this weekend in Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files,” an ongoing dump of internal memos about the inner workings and accusations of political partisanship at the social media company.

In a Friday night set of posts, dozens of tweets making up the third installment of the Twitter Files, independent reporter Matt Taibbi outlined internal conversations, moderation trends and what purportedly led to the company kicking former President Donald Trump off the social media platform in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Among his posts, Taibbi flagged an October 2020 tweet  by someone with the Twitter handle @JohnBasham. That owner of the @JohnBasham account claimed that between “2% & 25% of ballots by mail are being REJECTED for errors!” Taibbi linked to the original tweet – flagged on feeds two years ago at “proven to be false” and given a “Learn how voting is safe and secure” label – along with his own context.

This post was among dozens Friday, Dec. 9, from independent reporter Matt Taibbi. (Screenshot, Twitter)

That tweet, Taibbi wrote, “involves a former Tippecanoe County, Indiana Councilor and Republican” named John Basham.

Problem is, the John Basham who is a Tippecanoe County Council member and a local landlord doesn’t have a Twitter account.