The House Judiciary Committee confirmed on Twitter that eldest son Hunter Biden's “laptop from hell” was real, the same day the Post's bombshell report about the contents of the hard drive was censored by social media. We are seeking testimony from an FBI analyst who admitted to being a content moderator. giant.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Thursday that the FBI “played a key role” in the agency's campaign to “withhold true information promoting the Biden family's influence in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.” A letter was sent requesting transcription of interviews with staff. According to a copy of the letter obtained exclusively by The Post.
“Despite the FBI having had this laptop for nearly a year and verifying the source of its contents, and continuing for months, social media companies regarding the laptop's authenticity “We have made an organizational decision to decline to answer direct questions from those who have previously shared information with us,” Jordan wrote to an anonymous analyst.
“Simply put, after the FBI led social media companies to believe that the laptop was the product of a foreign operation, the FBI stopped sharing information and the social media companies censored the New York Post article. “It was Russian disinformation,” he said.
In more than 30 meetings with Twitter (now Company We talked about sex. Mr. Hunter leans into his father's shoes as he sits on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, which earns him nearly $1 million a year.
When a Post article was published on October 14, 2020, in which the then-second son introduced his father to a Burisma executive, platforms such as Twitter quickly censored the article.
In a separate call with Facebook, the FBI declined to confirm the laptop's authenticity.
The crackdown came despite a call with Twitter in which an anonymous FBI analyst indicated the laptop was “real,” and despite an intervention by another member of the bureau's Office of General Counsel.
“Someone on Twitter essentially asked if the laptop was real, and one of the FBI agents on the call said another participant interjected and said, 'I have no further comment. 'Yes, that's right,'” said Laura Demrow, director of the FBI's Foreign Influences Task Force. He testified before the Judiciary Committee in July.
Mr. Demrow currently serves as deputy director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)'s National Counterintelligence and Security Center, which works with “private sectors at risk of foreign intelligence infiltration.” “Issue public warning of intelligence threats to the United States.” ”
The head of the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force's Russia unit later held a conference call with Twitter, Facebook, and Google, confirming there was no evidence that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. He did not mention that the department had owned it since 2019.
“As a result, social media companies continued to rely on the FBI's previous warnings to censor articles,” Jordan said.
Since November 2023, the Judiciary Committee has asked FBI analysts who have spoken to be present for transcribing interviews with committee members and staff, but until now it has not known the staff members' names.
“Your testimony is critical to our oversight and the enactment of new legal limits on the executive branch's ability to work with technology companies and other intermediaries to censor speech,” Jordan told analysts. “This is critical in informing potential legislative reforms, including the possibility of
The Chair requested a response by 4 October.
The FBI verified the authenticity of the material contained on Hunter's discarded laptop in November 2019, and an IRS whistleblower testified before the House Ways and Means Committee last year, but current and former G-Men remain unsure of its source. He claimed ignorance.
Twitter's deputy general counsel James Baker, who held the same position at the FBI from 2014 to 2017, claimed that “the materials may have been hacked,” and that the then-Trust and Security Director Yoel Roth pressure to block the Post's reporting.
FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan told Twitter and Facebook moderators the day after the Oct. 14 post-scoop that there was “no current evidence suggesting a foreign connection or direction of the leak.” However, he later denied under oath that he was involved in either push. social media company.
Fifty-one former intelligence officials also circulated a letter discrediting both Post reports about the emails from Hunter's laptop. The influence effort was prompted by a phone call between then-Biden campaign adviser Antony Blinken and former CIA director Michael Morell.
The notorious “lying spy” said the leaked emails “contain all the classic hallmarks of Russian intelligence operations.”
Hunter's laptop was introduced into evidence earlier this year in Delaware as part of special prosecutor David Weiss' criminal firearms case against his eldest son.
At a pivotal moment in the June trial, FBI Special Agent Erica Jensen said under oath that the bureau had long confirmed it belonged to the eldest son.
