On Wednesday, the first high-profile hearing for the new Republican majority investigating President Joe Biden’s administration and family will take place when three former Twitter executives testify about Twitter’s decision to temporarily suppress a New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop.
After Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner and CEO, released internal communications from Twitter staff about the decision to temporarily block users from sharing the New York Post story in the closing weeks of the 2020 presidential election campaign season, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who has launched a broad investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings, is now investigating the social media giant.
Former Deputy Counsel and high-ranking FBI official James Baker will testify at the hearing for the first time since Musk fired him in December.
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Musk has claimed that government censorship is evident in the internal communications revealed in his so-called “Twitter files,” claiming that Twitter acted “under orders from the government” in silencing the laptop story. Comer’s suspicion that the government was behind the story’s alleged suppression has been strengthened by the “Twitter files.”
Twitter’s then-CEO, Jack Dorsey, admitted the company’s response to the Post article was “not great” months later. Further, he said it was unacceptable to block access to the article’s URL without providing any explanation for doing so.
Skepticism surrounded the Post article at the time due to questions about the laptop’s origins, including Giuliani’s involvement, and because top officials in the Trump administration had previously warned that Russia was working to denigrate Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. After Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, which it did through the hacking and subsequent release of Democratic Party emails, concerns about Russian interference in the 2020 election were widespread in Washington.
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Rep. James Comer, chairman of the Oversight committee, stated as much at a press conference on Monday morning. Ensure there is no threat to our national security is a top priority for us.
In spite of this, Republicans now hold the power to issue subpoenas in the House, which gives them the authority to compel witnesses to testify and conduct aggressive investigations. The staff of the Republican Party has spent the better part of the past year analysing the messages and financial transactions that were discovered on the laptop that belonged to the younger son of the president. Comer has stated in the past that the evidence they have compiled is “overwhelming,” but he has not provided specifics about this claim.
Comer has promised that there will be no hearings regarding the Biden family until the committee has the evidence to back up any claims of alleged wrongdoing. This is because Comer believes that the Biden family has been unfairly targeted. He also admitted that there is a lot at stake whenever an investigation is focused on the head of a political party.
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nSpeaking on Monday at an event hosted by the National Press Club, the Republican from Kentucky stated that he could not guarantee that Hunter Biden would be subpoenaed during his tenure in office. “We are going to proceed in the direction in which the investigation takes us. Perhaps there is nothing to see there.”