House Republicans are escalating their investigation into the FBI’s role in enabling Big Tech censorship of the New York Post’s laptop exposé on the Biden family. This time, they focused on an FBI official who reportedly affirmed the laptop’s authenticity before it was censored in 2020.
In a letter dated Sept. 26, 2024, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) requested a transcribed interview with an unnamed FBI analyst who allegedly told Twitter moderators in 2020 that the laptop was “real.” However, the same official conveniently withheld the fact the bureau had been sitting on the computer since 2019, which they later used to indict Hunter Biden.
“Even though the FBI had been in possession of this laptop for nearly a year and had verified the provenance of its contents, the FBI made the institutional decision to refuse to answer direct questions from social media companies about the laptop’s authenticity—despite months of constant information sharing up to that time,” wrote Jordan to the unnamed analyst, as first reported by the Post.
Jordan referenced the July testimony of former FBI official Laura Dehmlow, who recounted a 2020 phone call exchange between Twitter and the unnamed FBI analyst. Dehmlow noted in her testimony that the analyst confirmed that the laptop was “real.” However, he was interrupted and silenced by another FBI official who added, “No further comment.” It isn’t immediately clear whether Dehmlow was a participant in the meeting.
#NEWS: @Jim_Jordan demands testimony from FBI analyst who told Twitter Hunter Biden laptop was ‘real’ pic.twitter.com/iHbsPJXpPd
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) September 26, 2024
This happened around the publication time of the Post’s story about the laptop, contradicting then-presidential candidate Joe Biden's claims that he never discussed foreign business dealings with his son.
Jordan suggested that the FBI’s inexplicable silence led Big Tech platforms to wrongly assume that the laptop and the Post story were part of a Russian disinformation campaign. This prompted social media companies to censor the newspaper just weeks before the 2020 election.
“Put simply, after the FBI conditioned social media companies to believe that the laptop was the product of a foreign malign influence operation, the FBI stopped its information sharing, allowing social media companies to censor the Post story on the incorrect basis that it was Russian disinformation,” Jordan added.
The Ohio congressman’s comments refer to the fact that the FBI had reportedly over 30 meetings with several Big Tech companies to sound the alarm about a potential “hack and leak” operation targeting the scandal-ridden Biden family, according to the Post.
The outlet reported that weeks after the FBI primed social media platforms with vague warnings, the Post released a bombshell report exposing that in 2015 Hunter Biden introduced his then-vice president father to a Burisma executive. Social media companies, almost unanimously, banned the story from their platforms in response. Big Tech executives later conveniently affirmed that they were concerned the laptop's story was part of the disinformation campaign first noted by the FBI.
But the damage was already done as the censorship tipped the scales in Biden’s favor, according to a survey commissioned by the Media Research Center and conducted by The Polling Company.
About 45.1 percent of Biden voters said they were unaware of the bombshell story, and approximately 9.4 percent of these voters affirmed they would not have voted for Biden if had they been aware of it. This margin could have been enough to sway the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in favor of Trump, securing his re-election.
Related: Sen. Cotton, Rubio Echo MRC Call for Big Tech to Not Repeat 2020 Election Censorship
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