Does Big Brother tweet?

Star-Ledger
March 13, 2011
By The Auditor

Last week, Democratic operative Josh Henne was waiting to be called for jury duty in Middlesex County, killing time engaging in one of his favorite pastimes: agitating Christie via Twitter.

It wasn’t the first time he’s taken to the social networking site to criticize Christie; the two have engaged in several tweeting back-and-forths.

“Sorry to disappoint your negative, partisan little heart,” Christie wrote to Henne, who responded by criticizing the governor for “only talking politics and bashing teachers.”

Henne told The Auditor he was a little surprised when he was called into the court administrator’s office and told to “cease and desist” tweeting after the office got a “call from Trenton.”

Court spokeswoman Winnie Comfort said the judicial branch doesn’t have anyone keeping tabs on Twitter usage in the jury waiting room. And as long as he wasn’t on a jury, he likely wasn’t breaking any rules, she said. The court administrator did not respond to a request for comment.

Ever political, Henne suspects it was Christie’s office keeping tabs and maybe making the phone call to halt his tweeting.

“I really thought the Christie administration had bigger things to do than keep tabs on Twitter — like raiding pensions and disparaging teachers, firefighters and cops,” he said.

Christie’s office says the call didn’t come from them.

“Oh, please. This sounds like a conspiracy theory,” spokesman Michael Drewniak said. “If the story is true, and I have no way of knowing that, I guess anyone could place a call from somewhere in the 609 area code after reading a tweet they didn’t like. No one in this office was involved; nor would they ever inject themselves into anything like that.”