BURNS

LAW
FIRM
P.O. BOX 191250
ST. LOUIS, MO 63119
Tel.: 314-329-5040
Fax: 314-282-8136
JOHN C. BURNS, Esq.
tblf@pm.me

January 11, 2022

VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS

OVERNIGHT MAIL

Attorney General Eric Schmitt

Missouri Attorney General’s Office
Supreme Court Building
207 W. High Street
P.O. Box 899
Jefferson City, Missouri 65102
573-751-3321

Re: T-Mobile’s Violation of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act

Attorney General Schmitt:

I represent TGP Communications, LLC d/b/a The Gateway Pundit (“TGP”). TGP
is a Saint Louis-based, conservative national political blog with roughly 2.5 million daily
views. It is a top 200 website with tens of thousands of daily Missouri readers.

Recently, TGP readers from Missouri1 and across the country have contacted my
client, complaining that mobile carrier T-Mobile has been blocking their attempts to share
TGP articles with friends and family via text message. TGP recently published a series of
articles about this. I have enclosed my client’s articles chronicling this – we’ve only
recently become aware of this problem.

It appears that T-Mobile is attempting to fraudulently exploit an FCC regulatory a

false loophole in order to censor TGP’s articles.2 More distressingly, some of the
communications between TGP readers and T-Mobile personnel indicate that TGP has been

1
At least one Missouri reader filed a complaint with your office – a copy of that complaint is enclosed for
reference.
2
Fraudulently, because the texts are not unwanted (i.e., spam), nor are they dangerous or threatening. This
being the case, T-Mobile is in violation of Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act, V.A.M.S. § 407.010, et
seq.
-1-
Attorney General Eric Schmitt
January 11, 2022
put on some manner of tech company blacklist3 by Google and other masters of the
universe in an effort to crush TGP’s ability to compete in the marketplace and, worse,
simply exercise its rights to freedom of speech under the constitutions of the United States
and Missouri.

As I’m certain you agree, this is outrageous conduct which until recent years I
would have only expected in CCP-ruled China, or some other despotic nation – not the
USA. You may be aware that Google, Facebook, Twitter, PayPal and other big tech
monopolists have been engaged in a systematic effort to censor and destroy my client’s
business and also to censor the voices of millions of other Americans – including
Missourians – whose voices are politically disfavored by corporate, political, and
governmental oligarchs. Apparently, T-Mobile has joined this trend.

T-Mobile’s conduct simply cannot be countenanced. While internet censorship

(though unconstitutional) was made possible by Congress’ decision to deputize internet
service providers as censors, telecommunications is a different animal. For decades, the
latter has been precluded from censoring speech.

We are also aware that at least one Missouri reader, and possibly more, have
contacted your office asking for help with this matter. For example, I enclose said reader’s
complaint to your office, as well as your office’s refusal to assist him. I have copied the
reader on this correspondence.

On behalf of my client, we implore you to investigate this matter. This is a very

obvious violation of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, as Gateway Pundit readers,
purchasing T-Mobile phone services – within the state of Missouri – for personal and/or
family use, have suffered from manifestly unfair practices, causing them to lose the benefit
of their bargain4 – namely that in purchasing the services of T-Mobile, they could freely
communicate with friends, family, and others, without literal Orwellian censorship.

I am not overstating the significance of T-Mobile’s outrageous acts. Missouri, but

also America, are victims of a very serious and, frankly, terrifying assault on the freedom
of expression. I first became introduced to this problem in 2015 when I represented the
first person to be permanently banned from Twitter for his legal speech. Extremely
powerful public and private entities, from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley are coordinating
to remove entire modes of thought from the internet, using Communications Decency Act
Section 230 as both a sword and a shield.

Legal academics in powerful positions have engaged in a multi-year assault on

speech in the name of “equity.” In what can only be described as a bitter irony,5 the Floyd
3
See enclosed TGP article of January 5, 2022 (UPDATE: T-Mobile Cites FCC’s Decision in 2018 to
Block “Unwanted” or “Spam Text Messages” as Excuse to Censor the Gateway Pundit Links on Text”)
(“Mint Mobile told me, when I was on the phone bitching at them for over an hour yesterday, that T-
Mobile was blocking GP to GP violating T-Mobile’s ‘policies’ and that GP was on a google [sic]
‘restricted’ site list which was why it was being blocked…”)
4
See Murphy v. Stonewall Kitchen, LLC, 503 S.W.3d 308 (Mo. Ct. App. E.D. 2016); see generally, Judge
Dierker’s Personal Injury and Torts Handbook, Chapter 29, Missouri Practice Series (West 2021).

5
More like, perverse joke.
-2-
Attorney General Eric Schmitt
January 11, 2022
Abrams First Amendment Legal Clinic at Yale has for political reasons agreed to represent
certain plaintiffs in a defamation suit against my client. You may recall that Floyd Abrams
is one of the greatest advocates for free speech in American history, having almost single-
handedly crafted the Times Standard and countless other critical protections for speech.
Now, the clinic that bears his name actively prostitutes itself for political favors in the name
of suppressing speech.

This public-private (i.e., literally, fascist) crackdown on speech cannot continue

with impunity, or else very soon Missourians and every other American citizen will find
themselves in a dystopian, and quite possibly totalitarian nightmare. Without free speech,
the People can have no freedom. I’m reminded of the great seal of the State of Missouri –
‘Let the welfare of the people be the highest law.’

My client and I have been cheering you on, for your exceptional work fighting
against President Biden’s immoral and illegal vaccine mandates. Candidly, your work on
this has made me proud to be a Missourian – truly so. We’ve been very grateful for your
efforts on that front.

Please don’t let us down. Not only are our readers Missouri citizens, we are, too.
Please defend all of our rights. Please investigate and prosecute T-Mobile. Its offensive
and arrogant bid to control thought is as unconstitutional and illegal as it is outrageous and
offensive.

Thank you for the courtesy of your consideration.

Very truly yours,

/s/ John C. Burns

JCB/er

Enclosures

cc: Michael Barlow, TGP reader;

Missouri AGO –
Kansas City
615 E. 13th Street, Ste. 401
Kansas City, MO 64106
816-889-5000

Cape Girardeau
2311 Bloomfield St., Ste. 106
Cape Girardeau, MO 63703
573-290-5679
-3-
Attorney General Eric Schmitt
January 11, 2022
Springfield
149 Park Central Square, Ste. 1017
Springfield, MO 65806
417-895-6567

Saint Louis
815 Olive Street, Ste. 200
Saint Louis, MO 63101
314-340-6816

TGP Readers

-4-
Attorney General Eric Schmitt
January 11, 2022