Journalist Ken Klippenstein Suspended By X After Publishing Hacked JD Vance Dossier

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein was suspended from X after he published the hacked dossier compiled by the Trump campaign during its vetting of JD Vance .

Back in February, the Trump campaign compiled a research dossier on Vance in order to vet the Ohio senator as a potential running mate for Donald Trump . The 271-page document included a section about “potential vulnerabilities,” which included his past criticism of the former president.

Soon after Trump picked Vance as his vice presidential nominee, an individual known as “Robert” sent the document to a reporter from Politico. In August, The Trump campaign revealed it had been hacked by Iranian intelligence.

Several other outlets were sent the vetting documents, but all refused to print its contents — on the grounds of both the unclear provenance of the information as well as its apparent lack of newsworthiness. Some criticized those outlets for their refusal to make the documents public.

Klippenstein on Thursday published the dossier via his website.

“The dossier has been offered to me and I’ve decided to publish it because it’s of keen public interest in an election season,” Klippenstein wrote. “It’s a 271-page research paper the Trump campaign prepared to vet now vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t been altered, but even if it was, its contents are publicly verifiable. I’ll let it speak for itself.”

His account was suspended hours after publishing the dossier.

X, which Elon Musk took over and promised to reinvent as a free speech platform, also does not allow users to even link to the report from Klippenstein.

A spokesperson for X told journalist Justin Baragona that Klippenstein had been temporarily suspended for sharing Vance’s personal information. The document shared by Klippenstein included his home address and partial Social Security number, according to the spokesperson.

“Ken Klippenstein was temporarily suspended for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information, specifically Sen. Vance’s physical addresses and the majority of his Social Security number,” an X spokesperson told Baragona.