Internal Twitter communications show Joe Biden’s campaign had a direct line to censor the Hunter laptop story, and an FBI agent recently testified he was in charge of a “command post” that made direct requests to social media companies to remove “misinformation.”
“Misinformation” on Twitter, including tweets from acclaimed scientists that contested the administration’s COVID narrative, in fact has been a stated concern of the White House.
Last year, then-White Press secretary Jen Psaki admitted the administration was “flagging” alleged misinformation – “problematic posts” – for removal from Facebook, which also censored the laptop story.
Further, Biden’s surgeon general openly demanded that the social media companies submit detailed information about alleged COVID-19 “misinformation” on their platforms. And, as WND reported, the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin naming “proliferation of false or misleading narratives” regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election as among the top terror threats.
So, on Friday, after Twitter general counsel James Baker – a former top FBI official at the center of the “Russia collusion” hoax – was fired for allegedly “vetting” the internal communications designated for release by new owner Elon Musk, New York Post reporter Steven Nelson wanted to know if anyone in the Biden administration was “in touch” with Baker regarding his activities.
“So, it’s up to private companies to make these types of decisions,” said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “We were not involved. I can say that. We were not involved.”
See Jean-Pierre’s response:
Twitter files released by Musk document the company’s censorship of New York Post stories presenting evidence tying then-presidential candidate Joe Biden to his family’s global influence-peddling operation, which made multi-million-dollar deals with the likes of Chinese Communist Party companies, and Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs.
Baker – who was hired by Twitter in June 2020 – was fired Tuesday, Musk said, due to “concerns” about his “possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue.”
Later, investigative journalist Matt Taibbi – who reported the initial “Twitter Files” release last week – revealed Baker was “vetting” the internal documents, delaying the release of a second batch of files to Taibbi and independent journalist Bari Weiss.
Files reported Thursday night by Weiss showed that contrary to the claims of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and others, prominent conservative figures were being “shadowbanned,” meaning the distribution of their tweets was severely curbed. Musk also has confirmed that Twitter shadowbanned some political candidates while they were running for office.
Baker, while with the FBI, was alleged to be the source of the Mother Jones story that first reported the bogus, anti-Trump “Steele Dossier” of Russian propaganda prior to the 2016 election. Baker also was at the center of the investigation of the since-debunked claim that Donald Trump had a communications backchannel with Vladimir Putin through a Russian bank. The FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into the claim after Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann pushed the allegations to Baker and the bureau.
The FBI social media “command post” was revealed in the testimony under oath of Elvis Chan, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cyber Branch in San Francisco,
In a lawsuit by attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana alleging the federal government colluded with Big Tech to censor COVID-19 “misinformation,” Chan testified his office coordinated with Justice Department lawyers, federal prosecutors and FBI field offices nationwide in making direct requests to social media companies to censor content deemed to be “misinformation.”
“We would receive some responses from the social media companies,” Chan said. “I remember in some cases they would relay that they had taken down the posts. In other cases, they would say that this did not violate their terms of service.”
On Monday, Jean-Pierre was asked by Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich if the White House believed that the decisions by Twitter to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election “were made appropriately in light of” the revelation that the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee had a direct line of communication to Twitter.
She dismissed it as “‘old news.”
“So look, we see this as a, an interesting or a coincidence, if I may, that, that he would so haphazardly, Twitter was so haphazardly pushed this distraction,” Jean-Pierre said. “That is a, that is full of old news, if you think about it.”
‘Coordination?’
Prior to Musk’s disclosure Tuesday about Baker, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, recounted a sequence of events that led to Twitter hiring former FBI lawyer.
“FBI Agent Timothy Thibault tried to shut down an avenue of the Hunter Biden investigation,” he wrote. “Then, Twitter hires former FBI General Counsel James Baker who helps give the company an excuse to suppress the story. Coordination?”
FBI Agent Timothy Thibault tried to shut down an avenue of the Hunter Biden investigation.
Then, Twitter hires former FBI General Counsel James Baker who helps give the company an excuse to suppress the story.
Coordination?
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) December 6, 2022
House Republicans also wrote a letter to Baker on Tuesday asking him to contact the House Oversight Committee and appear before the panel during the next Congress, when Jordan likely will be the panel’s chairman.
The letter, citing information released by Twitter, says Baker allegedly “played a key advisory role in the decision to censor” the Post stories.
Jordan noted the Reuters report Tuesday that the Biden Justice Department is investigating Musk’s Elon Musk’s medical device company Neuralink.
“Surely it’s just a coincidence that the Biden Administration is investigating one of @elonmusk;s companies at the same time Musk is releasing the truth on the Hunter Biden #TwitterFiles,” Jordan wrote.
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