FBI agent says bureau 'met weekly' with social media giants before 2020 election, report says - after Trump ally Sebastian Gorka admits he's 'deeply underwhelmed' by Elon Musk's Twitter exposé
The FBI met with representatives from the top social media companies on a weekly basis in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, it was reported on Saturday.
Agent Elvis Chan reportedly made the revelation during a sworn deposition for a Republican-led case against the Biden administration charging alleged social media 'censorship,' according to Fox News.
The GOP Attorneys General of Missouri and Louisiana are accusing White House officials of colluding with Big Tech on removing unfavorable coverage 'under the guise of combating misinformation.'
It comes amid fallout from the Elon Musk-promoted Twitter 'exposé' that was apparently meant to show proof that the platform - which he recently acquired for $44 billion - worked in tandem with Democrats to tip the scales in the 2020 election.
It was centered around correspondences mainly between top employees at Twitter about the site's suppression of the infamous New York Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop that was published in October 2020.
But while Donald Trump and many of his allies cried foul in response to the so-called 'Twitter files,' others in his camp surprisingly shrugged it off.
'So far I'm deeply underwhelmed. We know the Dems in DC collude with the Dems in Palo Alto,' former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka wrote on Twitter after journalist Matt Taibbi published the findings.
'Big Whop. Need a paper trail of felonies. Elon better have that.'
Former Trump administration aide Sebastian Gorka said Elon Musk 'better have' stronger evidence of collusion to censor stories on Twitter after he hyped up Matt Taibbi's 'Twitter exposé'
Gorka was one of a few current or former Trump allies shrugging off the findings which Musk promised would be revelatory in nature
Tesla billionaire Musk had promised another exposé to come on Saturday, after Taibbi's, but he backpedaled at the 11th hour that night - literally - writing: 'Looks like we will need another day or so.'
The published correspondences show Twitter employees going back and forth trying to justify their censorship of the story under the site's hacked materials rules. It appears that many top officials at the platform were hesitant about whether Hunter Biden's laptop was accessed through unscrupulous means.
Taibbi also provides screenshots showing Twitter employees complying with requests from the Biden campaign to take down certain links - a practice followed by both campaigns at the time.
Links sent by the Biden team allegedly included naked photos of Hunter Biden that would have been posted without his consent.
While Musk floated suggestions that Democrats could have aided in violating the First Amendment, in his reporting Taibbi points out that the Trump administration - in power at the time - made the same asks of Twitter.
'Govt suppression of speech is newsworthy,' Trump 2016 adviser AJ Delgado wrote on Saturday. 'Therefore, when is [Taibbi] doing a thread about the requests/emails sent by the Trump WH???'
It includes Biden campaign team requests to remove certain links - which were reportedly inappropriate images of Hunter Biden published without his consent
She pointed out that he 'hurriedly mentioned' the Trump White House's actions but accused him of having 'glossed over it.'
But none of the reporting shows the Biden team ever asking to censor or remove the New York Post article - something Facebook did as well after warnings by the FBI, according to its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg told podcast host Joe Rogan in August that bureau officials told him to be on 'high alert' about items related to 'Russian propaganda' in the lead-up to the election.
He couldn't recall whether the FBI specifically flagged the laptop story but said it 'basically fit the pattern.'
Musk suggested that Twitter was 'acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech,' seemingly in reference to the Biden campaign asking the platform to remove links - but it was Donald Trump who was leading the government at the time, not Joe Biden
Musk promised there would be more coming on Saturday, but said at 11pm that night that it would be delayed
The interview is one of the items cited in Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's lawsuit against the Biden administration.
In their reported deposition of FBI Agent Elvis Chan last week, he allegedly claimed to be part of a group made up of foreign influence and cybersecurity infrastructure experts who regularly met with social media giants to discuss misinformation before the 2020 race.
A source in Schmitt's office told Fox that the discussions were centered around Russian disinformation.
The federal judge who ordered Chan to testify reportedly said he 'had authority over cybersecurity issues for the FBI in the San Francisco, California region which includes the headquarters of major social-media platforms and played a critical role for the FBI in coordinating with social-media platforms related to censorship.'
