According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the FBI sent him an alert in October 2020 not to give credence to the Hunter Biden laptop story that appeared in the New York Post. Zuckerberg said on the Joe Rogan Show that the company had been warned about a Russian document dump that was part of a disinformation campaign.
Two Republican Senators are now demanding any communications that Facebook had with the FBI that warned them of a disinformation campaign from Russia in the closing days of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson sent a letter to Zuckerberg demanding access to those communications.
“In October 2020, when the New York Post published articles based on evidence from Hunter Biden’s laptop, many news and social media organizations inappropriately rushed to censor and discredit the initial reporting and falsely labeled it as ‘disinformation.’ You recently appeared to indicate that the reason why Facebook made the unwise decision to censor articles about Hunter Biden’s laptop was based off an alert from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
The letter then references Zuckerberg’s recent interview with Joe Rogan in which the Facebook boss said the FBI told the company in the weeks before the election that there would be a document dump that was actually Russian propaganda.
The two Senators want to know because whistleblowers have recently come forward claiming that FBI leadership squelched an investigation of the laptop immediately after receiving it.
Grassley and Johnson’s letter continued: “Your revelation that Facebook took steps to censor information about Hunter Biden on its platform based on the FBI’s guidance raises even more questions about the FBI’s actions regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop. As you may know, whistleblowers have recently alleged to Senator Grassley that in August 2020, FBI officials initiated a scheme to downplay derogatory information on Hunter Biden for the purpose of shutting down investigative activity relating to his potential criminal exposure by labeling it ‘disinformation.’
“Whistleblowers have also alleged to Senator Johnson that local FBI leadership instructed its employees not to look at the Hunter Biden laptop immediately after the FBI had obtained it. The American people deserve to know whether the FBI used Facebook as part of their alleged plan to discredit information about Hunter Biden. If so, Congress and the American people require clarity with respect to the extent the FBI communicated with Facebook during the 2020 election about Hunter Biden-related information.”
As I’ve said elsewhere, there’s no guarantee that any information from Hunter Biden’s laptop in late October 2020 would have altered the outcome of the election. Just like there’s no guarantee it wouldn’t have changed the result. The issue is the FBI making that decision for the American people by placing their thumb on the scale and not allowing the voters to have all the facts — good or bad for either candidate.
Joe Biden is making a prime-time speech on Thursday night accusing Republicans of trying to destroy democracy. As Matt Margolis wondered: Does no one care anymore about what happened in 2020, even if our democracy is threatened by a powerful, rogue law enforcement agency?
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