Twitter Denies Request From Widower of Former Scarborough Staffer to Remove Trump's Conspiracy Tweets

President Trump has propagated the unfounded conspiracy theory that MSNBC's Joe Scarborough was involved in the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis.

May 26, 2020

Twitter announced Tuesday it would not remove posts from Donald Trump that suggest Joe Scarborough was involved in his former staffer's death.

On Sunday, the president shared a tweet that promoted a nearly 20-year-old conspiracy theory about Lori Klausutis, who died in 2001 while working for then-Congressman Scarborough. The Washington Post reports Klausutis' death was ruled an accident, after the medical examiner determined she had lost consciousness due to an undiagnosed heart condition, and hit her head on a desk inside Scarborough's district office in Florida. Scarborough, who is now the host of MSNBC's Morning Joe, was reportedly in Washington, D.C. at the time of Klausutis' death.

"A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly?" Trump tweeted Sunday. "Big topic of discussion in Florida...and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!"

In 2017, Trump took to Twitter to ask MSNBC if they would terminate Scarborough "based on the 'unsolved mystery' that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!"

On Tuesday, the New York Times ran a three-page letter from Lori Klausutis' widower, Timothy Klausutis, asking Twitter to remove the president's tweets about his late wife. "I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain," Timothy Klausutis wrote. "... My wife deserves better."

Scarborough and his wife/Morning Joe co-host, Mika Brzezinski, addressed the ongoing saga.

"I know all too well how much T.J. [Klausutis] has suffered, and how much — he’s told me his family has suffered," Scarborough said during Tuesday's broadcast. "... Every time they spread these lies, they’re hurting the family. What the Klausutises, the entire family have had to endure for 19 years, it’s unspeakably cruel, whether it’s the president or the people following the president, it’s unspeakably cruel. These are not public figures."

"And made worse by Twitter," Brzezinski added.

Some Twitter uses blasted Trump over the debunked conspiracy theory, with many calling on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to take some kind of action.

Despite the growing demands for action, a Twitter spokesperson said Trump's tweets will not be removed.

"We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family," the representative said in a statement to the Times. "We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly."