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House Republicans launch an investigation into the FBI

Following a new release from Elon Musk of his 'Twitter Files,' the GOP has sent out a "preservation notice" seeking documents verifying the federal agency's censorship.

FBI

Dave Newman/ Flickr

Published by
Rosana Rábago Sainz

The FBI continues to live their most difficult days. After Elon Musk uncovered the relationship between the federal agency and the social network in the seventh installment of the Twitter Files, House Republicans called for an investigation into the well-known institution. They did so, as The New York Post reports by sending the FBI a "preservation notice" on Friday. The objective? Search for documents verifying that the office censored certain Twitter content, such as The Post's Hunter Biden report.

As can be read in the letter that Jim Jordan, the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a congressman from Ohio, sent to the director of the FBI, Chris Wray, the investigation comes after the leak of ten documents that Elvis Chan, the FBI agent and the bureau's main liaison to Twitter, sent to the social network's former chief security officer, Yoel Roth, hours before The Post broke the story about Hunter. Not only that, the investigation also seeks to clarify the 3.5 million payment the FBI made to Twitter:

Newly released information shows the FBI has coordinated extensively with Twitter to censor or otherwise affect content on Twitter’s platform. These documents show that the FBI maintained this relationship with Twitter apart from any particularized need for a specific investigation, but as a permanent and ongoing surveillance operation. These revelations sadly reinforce our deep concerns about the FBI’s misconduct and its hostility to the First Amendment.

The missive ends with the Republicans requesting "all documents and communications between or among employees or contractors of the FBI referring or relating to content moderation on Twitter’s platform."

The 3.5 million paid to Twitter by the FBI: a "reimbursement"

The FBI, which recently blamed the leaks on "conspiracy theorists," has yet to respond to this inquiry. What he did do was to clarify the concept of the 3.5 million that Twitter received. As an agency official told Fox News Digital, it was a "reimbursement" for the "reasonable costs and expenses associated with their response to a legal process… For complying with legal requests, and a standard procedure."

Moreover, according to the federal office, Twitter is not the only social network that received these "reinbursements", but other online platforms also benefit, although the FBI did not want to clarify which companies are the beneficiaries:

While we are not able to speak to specific payments, the government is required to provide reimbursement for reasonable expenses directly related to searching for, assembling, reproducing, or otherwise providing the information responsive to the legal process. This requirement is set by federal law and the courts are the final arbiters of what is reasonable compensation.
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