Republican Senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Ron Johnson (WI) have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray seeking records of communications between the FBI and Facebook related to Hunter Biden’s laptop after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a recent interview that the FBI had told Facebook to crack down on alleged “Russia propaganda” ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
During an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last week, Zuckerberg said that the FBI approached his company and warned there was “about to be” a “Russian propaganda” effort. Zuckerberg said that the Hunter Biden laptop reporting “basically fit the pattern” described by the FBI’s warning, and for “five or seven days” after the Hunter Biden laptop report, Facebook intentionally reduced its distribution to a “meaningful” degree.
“Facebook wasn’t the only social media company that wrongfully suppressed Hunter Biden reporting; Twitter suspended the New York Post’s account because of its Hunter Biden reporting and blocked users from sharing the link to the Post’s articles relating to the laptop,” the senators wrote in their letter. “Then-Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, stated in October 2020 that the Hunter Biden laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign. As you are aware, even liberal news outlets have now confirmed the authenticity of thousands of records on the Hunter Biden laptop.”
“The FBI’s consistent efforts to falsely paint information relating to Biden Family misconduct as Russian disinformation continues to draw serious concerns, and those concerns are magnified by the FBI’s consistent failure to answer congressional inquiries,” they added. “The FBI’s ill-conceived actions not only interfered in our congressional investigation by frustrating and obstructing our ability to advance the matters under review, it also interfered in the 2020 election.”
The senators pointed out that “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 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 or other social media companies as part of their alleged plan to discredit information about Hunter Biden.”
They concluded by requesting the Justice Department and FBI provide “All records relating to the Justice Department’s and FBI’s contact with Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies relating to the Biden family, Senator Grassley’s and Senator Johnson’s Biden investigation, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and Russian disinformation from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021…. The names of the Justice Department and FBI officials who communicated with Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies regarding Russian disinformation during the 2020 election…. The names of the Facebook officials who the Justice Department and FBI made contact with during the 2020 election.”
