Weaponization Hearing Finds At Least 20 White House Employees Involved In Tech Censorship
The Louisiana attorney general on Thursday called for the firing of federal employees, the forfeiture of pensions and civil lawsuits against tech companies if they were found to have pressured them into censoring opinion.
Jeff Landry submitted his proposal to Congress during the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee hearings investigating "the federal government's use of firearms." He described what he called the "massive surveillance institution" that permeated the Biden administration.
He and Republican Senator Eric Schmidt of Missouri said documents they obtained from the court, the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Census Bureau and Dr. It show that Anthony Fauci and many people in the White House are taking action to suppress the technology. Companies are spreading stories they disagree with about Hunter Biden laptops or the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Please delete it immediately," a White House official said on Twitter. Another employee slammed Facebook for "exacerbating the problem of vaccine retention in our country."
The influx of requests was so overwhelming that Twitter offered a "streamlined process" for prioritizing them.
"For example, on a certain day last week, more than four different people in the White House came to us with problems," Twitter said, according to the filing.
Mr. Schmidt accused President Biden and his administration of “wanting their Ministry of Truth.”
"The Biden administration has put in place the largest speech censorship operation in American history," said Schmidt, who served as Missouri's attorney general before being sworn in as a senator this year, and is continuing the lawsuit. with Mr. Landry.
Landry, who served as a congressman before becoming Louisiana's attorney general, said a bill barring federal employees from using their positions to enforce oversight was a start but needed more support.
He said federal employees who became censors faced dismissal and loss of future benefits, and citizens whose opinions were censored had a clear path to legal action.
"There must be a sanction," said Mr. Landry, "otherwise the case will not be settled."
The ongoing court case has generated a wealth of evidence through the discovery process and testimony from senior Biden officials.
The leaked information included weekly meetings between the tech company and the CDC to discuss misinformation with police. the FBI's efforts to prevent the spread of pirated material, forcing tech companies to censor false reports about Hunter Biden's laptop; friendship. After Fauci tried to discredit the lab leak theory of the origin of COVID-19, tech companies began censoring their platforms.
Stanford law professor Matthew Seligman, who was subpoenaed by Democrats to testify at the trial, said the platforms are still making censorship decisions.
“Government officials submitted their suggestions to the platform regarding disinformation and threats of action against the government,” he said.
John Sawyer, Louisiana's assistant attorney general, responded by saying what they found was a campaign of harassment that went beyond mere solicitation and amounted to intimidation.
“We have a lot of evidence in our case that contradicts the idea that this was just a suggestion from federal officials,” Sawyer said.
He said they discovered at least 20 White House staffers were involved in hacking into tech companies to remove content, even when the content contradicted the White House's preferred narrative.
His testimony included an email in which Facebook, after being asked to do so by the White House, said it had 'minimized the spread' of vaccine-related content, which Facebook admitted was 'often true'. , but could be considered "sensational". . or apocalyptic".
Utah Republican Rep. Chris Stewart compared government crackdowns to East German secret police, the Stasi, and pressured newspapers to block positive reporting on regime skeptics .
"I think that's a very close comparison," Mr. Stewart said.
He said the police would visit dissidents to intimidate them. He likened the tactic to the IRS visiting reporters' homes while testifying before the weapons subcommittee this month.
Democrats dismissed the lawsuit as a distraction.
Rep. Stacy Plaskett, a Democratic congresswoman, said Congress should focus on the debt ceiling, the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and this week's shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.
Miss Plaskett, a nonvoting congresswoman from the Virgin Islands, said Republicans were using the wiretaps to spread more misinformation.
Republicans know this is a false story and they know the American people know the truth. And they're looking for ways to tell the truth."
Democrats called Mr. Landry and Mr. Schmidt as incapacitated witnesses and accused them of inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that briefly halted the Electoral College vote count on Capitol Hill.
When the rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs the committee, released the two from having to answer questions — a courtesy often shown to current and former members of Congress — Democrats erupted. They said it denied them the opportunity to verify Republican testimony.
A Democrat has suggested removing the two men's testimony from the record.
"They want to censor it," shouted a Republican.
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