The Twitter Files Part VII Unrolled
The FBI and the Hunter Biden laptop. Have I mentioned that the FBI is corrupt?
*Note: I’ve added Part VII to the master post, along with the very short “supplemental” thread that Matt Taibbi tweeted yesterday.
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
1. TWITTER FILES: PART 7
The FBI & the Hunter Biden Laptop
How the FBI & intelligence community discredited factual information about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings both after and *before* The New York Post revealed the contents of his laptop on October 14, 2020
4:09 PM · Dec 19, 2022
7.75K Reposts · 17.1K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
In Twitter Files #6, we saw the FBI relentlessly seek to exercise influence over Twitter, including over its content, its users, and its data.
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six
TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY
4:11 PM · Dec 19, 2022
822 Reposts · 4.34K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
In Twitter Files #7, we present evidence pointing to an organized effort by representatives of the intelligence community (IC), aimed at senior executives at news and social media companies, to discredit leaked information about Hunter Biden before and after it was published.
4:13 PM · Dec 19, 2022
1.41K Reposts · 5.46K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
The story begins in December 2019 when a Delaware computer store owner named John Paul (J.P.) Mac Isaac contacts the FBI about a laptop that Hunter Biden had left with him
On Dec 9, 2019, the FBI issues a subpoena for, and takes, Hunter Biden's laptop.
nypost.com/2020/10/14/ema…
4:18 PM · Dec 19, 2022
976 Reposts · 4.21K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
By Aug 2020, Mac Isaac still had not heard back from the FBI, even though he had discovered evidence of criminal activity. And so he emails Rudy Giuliani, who was under FBI surveillance at the time. In early Oct, Giuliani gives it to @nypost
nypost.com
Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad
4:21 PM · Dec 19, 2022
903 Reposts · 4K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Shortly before 7 pm ET on October 13, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, emails JP Mac Isaac.
Hunter and Mesires had just learned from the New York Post that its story about the laptop would be published the next day.
4:22 PM · Dec 19, 2022
713 Reposts · 3.35K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
7. At 9:22 pm ET (6:22 PT), FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan sends 10 documents to Twitter’s then-Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, through Teleporter, a one-way communications channel from the FBI to Twitter.
4:25 PM · Dec 19, 2022
947 Reposts · 3.69K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
8. The next day, October 14, 2020, The New York Post runs its explosive story revealing the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. Every single fact in it was accurate.
4:26 PM · Dec 19, 2022
1.3K Reposts · 4.65K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
9. And yet, within hours, Twitter and other social media companies censor the NY Post article, preventing it from spreading and, more importantly, undermining its credibility in the minds of many Americans.
Why is that? What, exactly, happened?
4:27 PM · Dec 19, 2022
1.12K Reposts · 4.92K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
10. On Dec 2, @mtaibbi described the debate inside Twitter over its decision to censor a wholly accurate article.
Since then, we have discovered new info that points to an organized effort by the intel community to influence Twitter & other platforms
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES
4:32 PM · Dec 19, 2022
871 Reposts · 3.77K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
11. First, it's important to understand that Hunter Biden earned *tens of millions* of dollars in contracts with foreign businesses, including ones linked to China's government, for which Hunter offered no real work.
Here's an overview by investigative journalist @peterschweizer
4:36 PM · Dec 19, 2022
1.49K Reposts · 4.32K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
12. And yet, during all of 2020, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies repeatedly primed Yoel Roth to dismiss reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian “hack and leak” operation.
This is from a sworn declaration by Roth given in December 2020.
fec.gov/files/legal/mu…
4:40 PM · Dec 19, 2022
752 Reposts · 2.71K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
13. They did the same to Facebook, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “The FBI basically came to us [and] was like, ‘Hey... you should be on high alert. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in 2016 election. There's about to be some kind of dump similar to that.'"
4:43 PM · Dec 19, 2022
733 Reposts · 2.66K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
14. Were the FBI warnings of a Russian hack-and-leak operation relating to Hunter Biden based on *any* new intel?
No, they weren't
“Through our investigations, we did not see any similar competing intrusions to what had happened in 2016,” admitted FBI agent Elvis Chan in Nov.
4:48 PM · Dec 19, 2022
638 Reposts · 2.24K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
15. Indeed, Twitter executives *repeatedly* reported very little Russian activity.
E.g., on Sept 24, 2020, Twitter told FBI it had removed 345 “largely inactive” accounts “linked to previous coordinated Russian hacking attempts.” They “had little reach & low follower accounts."
4:57 PM · Dec 19, 2022
249 Reposts · 891 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
16. In fact, Twitter debunked false claims by journalists of foreign influence on its platform
"We haven’t seen any evidence to support that claim” by @oneunderscore__ @nbc News of foreign-controlled bots.
“Our review thus far shows a small-scale domestic troll effort…”
5:06 PM · Dec 19, 2022
59 Reposts · 190 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
17. After FBI asks about a WaPo story on alleged foreign influence in a pro-Trump tweet, Twitter's Roth says, "The article makes a lot of insinuations... but we saw no evidence that that was the case here (and in fact, a lot of strong evidence pointing in the other direction).”
5:11 PM · Dec 19, 2022
208 Reposts · 849 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
18. It's not the first time that Twitter's Roth has pushed back against the FBI. In January 2020, Roth resisted FBI efforts to get Twitter to share data outside of the normal search warrant process.
5:14 PM · Dec 19, 2022
104 Reposts · 383 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
19. Pressure had been growing:
“We have seen a sustained (If uncoordinated) effort by the IC [intelligence community] to push us to share more info & change our API policies. They are probing & pushing everywhere they can (including by whispering to congressional staff).”
5:16 PM · Dec 19, 2022
58 Reposts · 181 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
20. Time and again, FBI asks Twitter for evidence of foreign influence & Twitter responds that they aren’t finding anything worth reporting.
“[W]e haven’t yet identified activity that we’d typically refer to you (or even flag as interesting in the foreign influence context).”
5:21 PM · Dec 19, 2022
65 Reposts · 149 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
21. Despite Twitter’s pushback, the FBI repeatedly requests information from Twitter that Twitter has already made clear it will not share outside of normal legal channels.
5:24 PM · Dec 19, 2022
233 Reposts · 758 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
22. Then, in July 2020, the FBI’s Elvis Chan arranges for temporary Top Secret security clearances for Twitter executives so that the FBI can share information about threats to the upcoming elections.
5:25 PM · Dec 19, 2022
266 Reposts · 698 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
23. On August 11, 2020, the FBI's Chan shares information with Twitter's Roth relating to the Russian hacking organization, APT28, through the FBI's secure, one-way communications channel, Teleporter.
5:26 PM · Dec 19, 2022
134 Reposts · 420 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
24. Recently, Yoel Roth told @karaswisher that he had been primed to think about the Russian hacking group APT28 before news of the Hunter Biden laptop came out.
When it did, Roth said, "It set off every single one of my finely tuned APT28 hack-and-leap campaign alarm bells."
5:31 PM · Dec 19, 2022
48 Reposts · 137 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
25. In Aug, 2020, FBI’s Chan asks Twitter: does anyone there have top secret clearance?
When someone mentions Jim Baker, Chan responds, "I don't know how I forgot him" — an odd claim, given Chan's job is to monitor Twitter, not to mention that they worked together at the FBI.
5:36 PM · Dec 19, 2022
64 Reposts · 186 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
26. Who is Jim Baker? He's former general counsel of the FBI (2014-18) & one of the most powerful men in the U.S. intel community.
Baker has moved in and out of government for 30 years, serving stints at CNN, Bridgewater (a $140 billion asset management firm) and Brookings
5:40 PM · Dec 19, 2022
58 Reposts · 146 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
27. As general counsel of the FBI, Baker played a central role in making the case internally for an investigation of Donald Trump
wsj.com
FBI Took Michael Sussmann’s Allegation of Trump-Russia Ties Seriously, Former Official Testifies
5:42 PM · Dec 19, 2022
126 Reposts · 414 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
28. Baker wasn't the only senior FBI exec. involved in the Trump investigation to go to Twitter.
Dawn Burton, the former dep. chief of staff to FBI head James Comey, who initiated the investigation of Trump, joined Twitter in 2019 as director of strategy.
5:42 PM · Dec 19, 2022
158 Reposts · 428 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
29. As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — "Bu alumni" — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals.
5:44 PM · Dec 19, 2022
262 Reposts · 689 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
30. Efforts continued to influence Twitter's Yoel Roth.
In Sept 2020, Roth participated in an Aspen Institute “tabletop exercise” on a potential "Hack-and-Dump" operation relating to Hunter Biden
The goal was to shape how the media covered it — and how social media carried it
5:47 PM · Dec 19, 2022
33 Reposts · 106 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
31. The organizer was Vivian Schiller, the fmr CEO of NPR, fmr head of news at Twitter; fmr Gen. mgr of NY Times; fmr Chief Digital Officer of NBC News
Attendees included Meta/FB's head of security policy and the top nat. sec. reporters for @nytimes @wapo and others
5:51 PM · Dec 19, 2022
177 Reposts · 523 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
32. By mid-Sept, 2020, Chan & Roth had set up an encrypted messaging network so employees from FBI & Twitter could communicate.
They also agree to create a “virtual war room” for “all the [Internet] industry plus FBI and ODNI” [Office of the Director of National Intelligence].
5:56 PM · Dec 19, 2022
273 Reposts · 659 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
33. Then, on Sept 15, 2020 the FBI’s Laura Dehmlow, who heads up the Foreign Influence Task Force, and Elvis Chan, request to give a classified briefing for Jim Baker, without any other Twitter staff, such as Yoel Roth, present.
6:02 PM · Dec 19, 2022
191 Reposts · 615 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
34. On Oct 14, shortly after @nypost publishes its Hunter Biden laptop story, Roth says, “it isn’t clearly violative of our Hacked Materials Policy, nor is it clearly in violation of anything else," but adds, “this feels a lot like a somewhat subtle leak operation.”
6:04 PM · Dec 19, 2022
33 Reposts · 93 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
35. In response to Roth, Baker repeatedly insists that the Hunter Biden materials were either faked, hacked, or both, and a violation of Twitter policy. Baker does so over email, and in a Google doc, on October 14 and 15.
6:10 PM · Dec 19, 2022
33 Reposts · 82 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
36. And yet it's inconceivable Baker believed the Hunter Biden emails were either fake or hacked. The @nypost had included a picture of the receipt signed by Hunter Biden, and an FBI subpoena showed that the agency had taken possession of the laptop in December 2019.
6:12 PM · Dec 19, 2022
97 Reposts · 249 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
37. As for the FBI, it likely would have taken a few *hours* for it to confirm that the laptop had belonged to Hunter Biden. Indeed, it only took a few days for journalist @peterschweizer to prove it.
6:14 PM · Dec 19, 2022
26 Reposts · 79 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
38. By 10 am, Twitter execs had bought into a wild hack-and-dump story
“The suggestion from experts - which rings true - is there was a hack that happened separately, and they loaded the hacked materials on the laptop that magically appeared at a repair shop in Delaware”
6:18 PM · Dec 19, 2022
39 Reposts · 117 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
39. At 3:38 pm that same day, October 14, Baker arranges a phone conversation with Matthew J. Perry in the Office of the General Counsel of the FBI
6:20 PM · Dec 19, 2022
43 Reposts · 120 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
40. The influence operation persuaded Twitter execs that the Hunter Biden laptop did *not* come from a whistleblower.
One linked to a Hill article, based on a WaPo article, from Oct 15, which falsely suggested that Giuliani’s leak of the laptop had something to do with Russia.
6:25 PM · Dec 19, 2022
100 Reposts · 328 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
41. There is evidence that FBI agents have warned elected officials of foreign influence with the primary goal of leaking the information to the news media. This is a political dirty trick used to create the perception of impropriety.
6:27 PM · Dec 19, 2022
160 Reposts · 553 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
42. In 2020, the FBI gave a briefing to Senator Grassley and Johnson, claiming evidence of “Russian interference” into their investigation of Hunter Biden.
The briefing angered the Senators, who say it was done to discredit their investigation.
grassley.senate.gov
6:29 PM · Dec 19, 2022
102 Reposts · 324 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
43. “The unnecessary FBI briefing provided the Democrats and liberal media the vehicle to spread their false narrative that our work advanced Russian disinformation.”
6:29 PM · Dec 19, 2022
84 Reposts · 279 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
44. Notably, then-FBI General Counsel Jim Baker was investigated *twice,* in 2017 and 2019, for leaking information to the news media.
“You’re saying he’s under criminal investigation? That’s why you’re not letting him answer?” Meadows asked.
“Yes”
politico.com
Ex-FBI general counsel faced criminal leak probe
6:32 PM · Dec 19, 2022
53 Reposts · 140 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
45. In the end, the FBI's influence campaign aimed at executives at news media, Twitter, & other social media companies worked: they censored & discredited the Hunter Biden laptop story.
By Dec. 2020, Baker and his colleagues even sent a note of thanks to the FBI for its work.
6:35 PM · Dec 19, 2022
171 Reposts · 438 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
46. The FBI’s influence campaign may have been helped by the fact that it was paying Twitter millions of dollars for its staff time.
“I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” reports an associate of Jim Baker in early 2021.
6:36 PM · Dec 19, 2022
78 Reposts · 175 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
47. And the pressure from the FBI on social media platforms continues
In Aug 2022, Twitter execs prepared for a meeting with the FBI, whose goal was “to convince us to produce on more FBI EDRs"
EDRs are an “emergency disclosure request,” a warrantless search.
6:40 PM · Dec 19, 2022
39 Reposts · 90 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
In response to the Twitter Files revelation of high-level FBI agents at Twitter, @Jim_Jordan said, “I have concerns about whether the government was running a misinformation operation on We the People.”
nypost.com
Twitter’s top ranks riddled with ex-FBI employees
6:42 PM · Dec 19, 2022
20 Reposts · 103 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Anyone who reads the Twitter Files, regardless of their political orientation, should share those concerns.
/END
6:44 PM · Dec 19, 2022
12 Reposts · 69 Likes
What an awesome present in the morning! Thanks!!
So, what we non-tribalists knew all along was occurring is confirmed. Ho hum. I'm not downplaying the importance of confirmation, but this is not news.