The FBI paid nearly $3.5 million in taxpayer funds to Twitter to censor conservatives, according to the latest “Twitter Files” released.
Twitter took down the New York Post’s bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story in Oct. 2020 after the FBI repeatedly warned executives at the Big Tech company it would be coming, internal documents reveal.
“Government paid Twitter millions of dollars to censor info from the public,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk wrote in a tweet.
Musk asked Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), “As (outgoing) Chair of House Intelligence, did you approve hidden state censorship in direct violation of the Constitution of the United States?”
A lengthy “TWITTER FILES: PART 7” on “The FBI & the Hunter Biden Laptop” thread was posted by independent journalist Michael Shellenberger Monday. The full thread is posted below.
The intelligence community “discredited factual information about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings both after and *before* The New York Post revealed the contents of his laptop on October 14, 2020,” Shellenberger said.
FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan sent 10 documents to former Twitter Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth through a one-way channel hours before the Post article was published. Chan urged Roth that the documents were “not spam” and asked him to “confirm receipt.” Two minutes later, Roth replied: “Received and downloaded – thanks!”
There were so many former FBI alumnae working at Twitter in 2020 that they had created their own secret Slack channel. Former FBI General Counsel Jim Baker, who started working as deputy general counsel for Twitter in 2021, told Roth the materials from Hunter Biden’s laptop were either faked or hacked, even though the Post included a receipt from the repair shop signed by Hunter Biden.
At least 10 percent of voters said knowledge of the story would’ve changed their mind about voting for Biden, according to a poll by the Media Research Center.
In Twitter Files #6, we saw the FBI relentlessly seek to exercise influence over Twitter, including over its content, its users, and its data. https://t.co/g66XzH9ISr
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
The story begins in December 2019 when a Delaware computer store owner named John Paul (J.P.) Mac Isaac contacts the FBI about a laptop that Hunter Biden had left with him
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
On Dec 9, 2019, the FBI issues a subpoena for, and takes, Hunter Biden's laptop. https://t.co/TdaYhHMVRH pic.twitter.com/JxdkrkgAkI
Shortly before 7 pm ET on October 13, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, emails JP Mac Isaac.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Hunter and Mesires had just learned from the New York Post that its story about the laptop would be published the next day. pic.twitter.com/59RV5h8ZsM
8. The next day, October 14, 2020, The New York Post runs its explosive story revealing the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. Every single fact in it was accurate. pic.twitter.com/TC2AnLNJAw
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
10. On Dec 2, @mtaibbi described the debate inside Twitter over its decision to censor a wholly accurate article.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Since then, we have discovered new info that points to an organized effort by the intel community to influence Twitter & other platforms https://t.co/1ZF3oottKR
11. First, it's important to understand that Hunter Biden earned *tens of millions* of dollars in contracts with foreign businesses, including ones linked to China's government, for which Hunter offered no real work.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Here's an overview by investigative journalist @peterschweizer pic.twitter.com/8EGQSpDl06
12. And yet, during all of 2020, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies repeatedly primed Yoel Roth to dismiss reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian “hack and leak” operation.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
This is from a sworn declaration by Roth given in December 2020.https://t.co/IvTjyYw9iR pic.twitter.com/5iq2ATB3bW
13. They did the same to Facebook, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “The FBI basically came to us [and] was like, ‘Hey… you should be on high alert. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in 2016 election. There's about to be some kind of dump similar to that.'" pic.twitter.com/yPGP8nYgCq
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
15. Indeed, Twitter executives *repeatedly* reported very little Russian activity.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
E.g., on Sept 24, 2020, Twitter told FBI it had removed 345 “largely inactive” accounts “linked to previous coordinated Russian hacking attempts.” They “had little reach & low follower accounts." pic.twitter.com/hy7hPahChS
17. After FBI asks about a WaPo story on alleged foreign influence in a pro-Trump tweet, Twitter's Roth says, "The article makes a lot of insinuations… but we saw no evidence that that was the case here (and in fact, a lot of strong evidence pointing in the other direction).” pic.twitter.com/jJjnczZnA5
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
19. Pressure had been growing:
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
“We have seen a sustained (If uncoordinated) effort by the IC [intelligence community] to push us to share more info & change our API policies. They are probing & pushing everywhere they can (including by whispering to congressional staff).” pic.twitter.com/HWeaYdvNqo
21. Despite Twitter’s pushback, the FBI repeatedly requests information from Twitter that Twitter has already made clear it will not share outside of normal legal channels. pic.twitter.com/WyI03iZ0WF
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
23. On August 11, 2020, the FBI's Chan shares information with Twitter's Roth relating to the Russian hacking organization, APT28, through the FBI's secure, one-way communications channel, Teleporter. pic.twitter.com/HHLpCqcOoy
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
24. Recently, Yoel Roth told @karaswisher that he had been primed to think about the Russian hacking group APT28 before news of the Hunter Biden laptop came out.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
When it did, Roth said, "It set off every single one of my finely tuned APT28 hack-and-leap campaign alarm bells." pic.twitter.com/RKoR4NtH1s
26. Who is Jim Baker? He's former general counsel of the FBI (2014-18) & one of the most powerful men in the U.S. intel community.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Baker has moved in and out of government for 30 years, serving stints at CNN, Bridgewater (a $140 billion asset management firm) and Brookings pic.twitter.com/FggRI2zITX
28. Baker wasn't the only senior FBI exec. involved in the Trump investigation to go to Twitter.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Dawn Burton, the former dep. chief of staff to FBI head James Comey, who initiated the investigation of Trump, joined Twitter in 2019 as director of strategy.
30. Efforts continued to influence Twitter's Yoel Roth.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
In Sept 2020, Roth participated in an Aspen Institute “tabletop exercise” on a potential "Hack-and-Dump" operation relating to Hunter Biden
The goal was to shape how the media covered it — and how social media carried it pic.twitter.com/lQSorONUSh
32. By mid-Sept, 2020, Chan & Roth had set up an encrypted messaging network so employees from FBI & Twitter could communicate.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
They also agree to create a “virtual war room” for “all the [Internet] industry plus FBI and ODNI” [Office of the Director of National Intelligence]. pic.twitter.com/Dhy8LotZHU
34. On Oct 14, shortly after @NYPost publishes its Hunter Biden laptop story, Roth says, “it isn’t clearly violative of our Hacked Materials Policy, nor is it clearly in violation of anything else," but adds, “this feels a lot like a somewhat subtle leak operation.” pic.twitter.com/xMnEWzgxdU
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
36. And yet it's inconceivable Baker believed the Hunter Biden emails were either fake or hacked. The @nypost had included a picture of the receipt signed by Hunter Biden, and an FBI subpoena showed that the agency had taken possession of the laptop in December 2019. pic.twitter.com/hwr2zBouly
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
37. As for the FBI, it likely would have taken a few *hours* for it to confirm that the laptop had belonged to Hunter Biden. Indeed, it only took a few days for journalist @peterschweizer to prove it. pic.twitter.com/eD8uk9lefn
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
39. At 3:38 pm that same day, October 14, Baker arranges a phone conversation with Matthew J. Perry in the Office of the General Counsel of the FBI pic.twitter.com/26ub4A4uKd
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
41. There is evidence that FBI agents have warned elected officials of foreign influence with the primary goal of leaking the information to the news media. This is a political dirty trick used to create the perception of impropriety.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
43. “The unnecessary FBI briefing provided the Democrats and liberal media the vehicle to spread their false narrative that our work advanced Russian disinformation.” pic.twitter.com/TuUCLNL3Qk
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
45. In the end, the FBI's influence campaign aimed at executives at news media, Twitter, & other social media companies worked: they censored & discredited the Hunter Biden laptop story.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
By Dec. 2020, Baker and his colleagues even sent a note of thanks to the FBI for its work. pic.twitter.com/ZEASt2aXXm
47. And the pressure from the FBI on social media platforms continues
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
In Aug 2022, Twitter execs prepared for a meeting with the FBI, whose goal was “to convince us to produce on more FBI EDRs"
EDRs are an “emergency disclosure request,” a warrantless search. pic.twitter.com/sENBIi6zPg
Anyone who reads the Twitter Files, regardless of their political orientation, should share those concerns.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
/END