TwitterFiles 7: FBI Paid Twitter Millions And Pressured Execs To Suppress The Hunter Biden Laptop Story
[CLICK TO BROWSE]New details show that the FBI was working to influence Twitter long before the New York Post Laptop From Hell story dropped.
Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger, who dropped the latest TwitterFiles, said that there existed “an organized effort by representatives of the intelligence community” targeting “senior executives at news and social media companies” to discredit “leaked information about Hunter Biden before and after it was published.”
Remember, the FBI had Hunter’s laptop since December 2019 and knew it wasn’t “Russian disinformation” at all — but they pushed it anyway.
They lied to high-level executives at Twitter and primed them to view the laptop story as Russian disinformation.
The pressure exerted on Twitter execs was so bad that even the censorious Yoel Roth was questioning what they were talking about since there was very little evidence of foreign interference on the platform.
Nevertheless, the FBI persisted.
Agent Elvis Chan arranged for special temporary Top Secret security clearances for Twitter executives so that the agency can share threat information on the upcoming election with them. Later, an encrypted messaging network between Twitter and the FBI was set up, and then a virtual “war room” was created for “all the [Internet] industry plus FBI and ODNI” [Office of the Director of National Intelligence].
The FBI also paid Twitter $3.4 million for “legal process response” — presumably the time Twitter executives were coordinating with the federal law enforcement agency.
Former FBI official Jim Baker turned Twitter deputy general counsel actually thanked the FBI in a letter for helping kibosh the Hunter Biden Laptop story.
The most recent ‘Twitter Files’ also revealed how an FBI official-turned Twitter lawyer sent a letter thanking the Bureau for its help suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Baker, who before serving as deputy general counsel for Twitter held a similar role for the FBI, worked closely with Bureau when it teamed up with the social media company to fight what it called election interference from foreign nations.
Baker and the FBI worked together to try to push the narrative that the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop had been hacked from another source by Russian agents and placed on the laptop that was later found at a Delaware repair shop, and that the laptop never belonged to Biden at all.
Source: Daily Mail
Here’s the latest drop:
1. TWITTER FILES: PART 7
The FBI & the Hunter Biden Laptop
How the FBI & 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
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
In Twitter Files #7, we present evidence pointing to an organized effort by representatives of the intelligence community (IC), aimed at senior executives at news and social media companies, to discredit leaked information about Hunter Biden before and after it was published.
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
By Aug 2020, Mac Isaac still had not heard back from the FBI, even though he had discovered evidence of criminal activity. And so he emails Rudy Giuliani, who was under FBI surveillance at the time. In early Oct, Giuliani gives it to @nypost https://t.co/TdaYhHMVRH
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
7. At 9:22 pm ET (6:22 PT), FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan sends 10 documents to Twitter’s then-Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, through Teleporter, a one-way communications channel from the FBI to Twitter. pic.twitter.com/7j59zfBuJQ
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
9. And yet, within hours, Twitter and other social media companies censor the NY Post article, preventing it from spreading and, more importantly, undermining its credibility in the minds of many Americans.
Why is that? What, exactly, happened?
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
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.
Here's an overview by investigative journalist @peterschweizer pic.twitter.com/8EGQSpDl06— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
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 (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
15. Indeed, Twitter executives *repeatedly* reported very little Russian activity.
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
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
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 (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
19. Pressure had been growing:
“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
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
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 (@shellenberger) 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 (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
25. In Aug, 2020, FBI’s Chan asks Twitter: does anyone there have top secret clearance?
When someone mentions Jim Baker, Chan responds, "I don't know how I forgot him" — an odd claim, given Chan's job is to monitor Twitter, not to mention that they worked together at the FBI. pic.twitter.com/VlyLcxhQVl
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
27. As general counsel of the FBI, Baker played a central role in making the case internally for an investigation of Donald Trump https://t.co/TMIMTpUjDw
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
29. As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — "Bu alumni" — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals. pic.twitter.com/prVhPGohOC
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
31. The organizer was Vivian Schiller, the fmr CEO of NPR, fmr head of news at Twitter; fmr Gen. mgr of NY Times; fmr Chief Digital Officer of NBC News
Attendees included Meta/FB's head of security policy and the top nat. sec. reporters for @nytimes @wapo and others pic.twitter.com/3yO5ZIc2Jy
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
33. Then, on Sept 15, 2020 the FBI’s Laura Dehmlow, who heads up the Foreign Influence Task Force, and Elvis Chan, request to give a classified briefing for Jim Baker, without any other Twitter staff, such as Yoel Roth, present. pic.twitter.com/1uhJ39OYSS
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
35. In response to Roth, Baker repeatedly insists that the Hunter Biden materials were either faked, hacked, or both, and a violation of Twitter policy. Baker does so over email, and in a Google doc, on October 14 and 15. pic.twitter.com/MpQTUj6Esl
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) 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 (@shellenberger) 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 (@shellenberger) 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 (@shellenberger) 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 (@shellenberger) 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.
By Dec. 2020, Baker and his colleagues even sent a note of thanks to the FBI for its work. pic.twitter.com/ZEASt2aXXm
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
Anyone who reads the Twitter Files, regardless of their political orientation, should share those concerns.
/END
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
Here is Agent Chan in March 2020 discussing how the FBI had “established channels of communication” with private companies and “shared threat indicators with them to protect their platform” and one might say help in “fortifying” the 2020 election.
So, what does the White House have to say about that?
Nothing, apparently.
Reporter: "Does it bother the president and those at the White House that a government agency like the FBI was involved in suppressing [the Hunter Biden's laptop story]?"
Jean-Pierre: "I'm not gonna comment from here about that." pic.twitter.com/kuComgJiv1
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 19, 2022
Why would they? It worked.
They just never expected that the public would ever find out.
And we never would have known if Elon hadn’t bought Twitter and opened up the Twitter Files.
Elon Smoked The Old Twitter Bird
ClashDaily’s Big Dawg has put his own spin on what’s been going down on the ol’ Bird App — the old Twitter is dead and Elon is building a new one.
Check out Doug’s latest piece, ‘Elon Smoked The Old Twitter Bird.’
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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 (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
47. And the pressure from the FBI on social media platforms continues
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
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 19, 2022
