FBI Agent Reveals Bureau Met With Tech Companies on Biden Laptop, Withheld Info

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - An FBI agent on the Foreign Influence Task Force revealed in testimony to Congress that the bureau met with social media companies to discuss the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 but withheld information from them, US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said on Monday.

The Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government interviewed Foreign Influence Task Force chief Laura Dehmlow in July, Jordan said in a statement via social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“[Dehmlow’s] testimony was shocking, revealing that the FBI deliberately withheld critical information from social media companies about Hunter Biden’s laptop the day that the New York Post story broke,” Jordan said in a statement.

The FBI met with both Facebook (owned by Meta, banned in Russia) and Twitter on October 14, 2020 – the same day US media broke the Hunter Biden laptop story, the statement said.

During its meeting with Twitter earlier in the day, one FBI agent confirmed to the company that the laptop was real, before another agent jumped in to say the agency has “no further comment,” the statement said.

The FBI then held emergency deliberations to decide how to answer the question ahead of the meeting with Facebook, with one FBI employee ordering that the agency respond with “no comment” moving forward, the statement said. The FBI provided such a response to Facebook when they asked about the laptop’s authenticity, the statement said.

“Did Dehmlow know that the FBI had the laptop and it was real? Yes. Did other key members of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force know? Yes. The FBI knew the laptop was real and yet decided it would say ‘no comment,’” the statement said.

Twitter and Facebook then censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, the statement said. The Biden administration “secretly set in motion” the events that led 51 former US intelligence officials to claim the story was Russian disinformation, the statement said.

FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan, the primary conduit between the agency’s Foreign Influence Task Force and big tech companies, made a number of “inconsistent statements” during sworn testimony, the statement also said.

Chan lied about his knowledge of the FBI’s Hunter Biden laptop investigation and the extent of his engagement with social media platforms on the matter, the statement said. The Justice Department has “stonewalled” the committee’s efforts to interview Chan, the statement added.

The lawmakers’ investigation into the “censorship-industrial complex” remains ongoing, the statement said. Lawmakers are preparing and considering legislation to bolster constitutional protections for freedom of speech and the press, the statement said.