While Rex Tillerson was secretary of state, his office conducted a weekslong investigation to find out who liked a tweet from Chelsea Clinton that criticized President Trump.
Nearly 10 people were interviewed about whether they liked the tweet while using the Twitter account for the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, according to the Daily Beast. Staffers at the embassy received an angry call on July 10, 2017, about the action.
Earlier that week, Trump was criticized for letting his daughter Ivanka fill his seat at the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany. Trump claimed his decision was “very standard,” then invoked the Clintons.
“If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!” he tweeted.
The former first daughter fired back within an hour: “It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me. Were you giving our country away? Hoping not.”
Almost a dozen people with access to the embassy’s Twitter account were interviewed about whether they had mistakenly or intentionally pressed the “like” button. All staffers denied they had done so.
One person familiar with the interviews said Tillerson’s top staffers “wanted blood” and repeatedly called Brussels to demand the name of the person who liked Clinton’s tweet. U.S. officials in Belgium never disclosed a name to Tillerson’s office, and the embassy proceeded to limit the Twitter account’s access to just two people.
It’s unclear if Trump was aware of the Twitter activity.
