On Monday, two Republican members of the United States Senate sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, demanding that the company hand over to the Senate any and all communications between the tech giant and the FBI concerning their preparation for the release of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The New York Post reports that the letter, signed by Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), also requested that Facebook reveal the names of every FBI agent or any other federal officials who told them ahead of time that “Russian disinformation” would be coming out to interfere with the election, shortly before the bombshell story was published with negative ramifications for then-candidate Joe Biden. Both are ranking committee members, with Johnson being the ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, while Grassley is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
“The American people deserve to know whether the FBI used Facebook as part of their alleged plan to discredit information about Hunter Biden,” the Senators wrote in their letter. “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.”
Last week, Zuckerberg sent shockwaves across the political spectrum with his revelation, on Joe Rogan’s podcast, that Facebook only censored the laptop story – published by the Post roughly one month before the 2020 election – after the FBI came to them, “warning” them that some stories would soon be released as part of a broader foreign propaganda campaign to interfere in the election. Zuckerberg said that the laptop story, released on October 14th, 2020, appeared to “fit the pattern” described by the federal agents; Facebook subsequently censored the story by greatly limiting users’ ability to share it, with the algorithms being artificially modified to reduce the visibility of any posts featuring the link.
Zuckerberg’s claim “raises even more questions about the FBI’s actions regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop,” the Senators continued. “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.’”
The unprecedented decision by the FBI to intervene in an election for the purpose of aiding a particular candidate has drawn even more widespread criticism of the agency, which has already suffered a massive hit to its reputation after carrying out a late-night raid of President Donald Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago, in Florida.