Democrats accuse ex-Missouri House speaker of bullying legislative aide on Twitter
Former Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones is being accused of cyberbullying a 26-year-old legislative assistant whom he became convinced was running left-wing Twitter accounts that Jones regularly argues with online.
Jones last summer began tweeting information about Madeline Friedmann, who is paid $29,000 a year as an assistant to Democratic state Rep. Martha Stevens of Columbia.
Friedmann says she has no idea why Jones thought she was behind any Twitter accounts. She says she neither operates any anonymous accounts nor knows anyone who does. But the harassment following Jones’ tweets got so bad that she says she alerted the Missouri Capitol Police and the clerk of the Missouri House, who called Jones and asked him to stop.
After speaking to the clerk, Jones deleted the posts involving Friedmann.
Then last week, a twitter account using a pseudonym began posting about Friedmann again, this time including a photo of her from when she was 17.
Jones retweeted the post, which inspired Friedmann and House Democrats to speak out publicly.
“We do not know why Mr. Jones and his compatriots are so obsessed with this young woman, but their continued cyberbullying and intimidation must cease immediately,” Stevens and House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said in a statement.
House Speaker Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield, said he first heard about the situation late last week. He urged Jones and anyone else involved to please leave the legislative assistant alone, specifically calling out the posting of underage photos as “completely beyond the pale.”
“It’s our goal to maintain a safe workspace at the Capitol, particularly for staff and interns, who for many it’s going to be their first exposure to state government,” Haahr told The Star on Tuesday.
Jones, 49, who left office in 2014 and now hosts a radio show in St. Louis, declined to answer questions specifically about his posts regarding Friedmann.
He called the accusations against him “defamatory” and insisted he was the victim because he is regularly targeted by anonymous left-wing Twitter users. He called for an investigation into the identity of accounts that he says “have been directly attacking me for years and are fully responsible for these events.”
He denied that he operates the anonymous account tweeting about Friedmann and says he doesn’t know who does. Throughout the weekend following the public statement from Stevens and Quade, Jones repeatedly interacted with the anonymous account on Twitter.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 1:36 PM.
