A conservative legal group has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the FBI after they failed to turn over communications between the bureau and Big Tech companies such as Facebook related to alleged efforts to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The lawsuit, launched by America First Legal (AFL), comes following a FOIA request in August that was denied by the FBI as “overly broad.”
It claims that the bureau violated the law by failing to produce communications with Facebook and other social media companies indicating an alleged effort to “censor news and information” about Biden’s laptop prior to the 2020 presidential election.
“The evidence is that the FBI and Big Tech, including Facebook, colluded to interfere with the 2020 Presidential election first by falsely and maliciously labeling the laptop ‘Russian disinformation’ and then by censoring and/or discrediting all news about its contents,” court documents read, according to Fox News.
FBI sued for alleged failure to provide communications with Big Tech regarding Hunter Biden laptop censorship https://t.co/Ep6wRFwXQK
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 4, 2022
Lawsuit Filed Against the FBI
The lawsuit by AFL points out that by withholding the information requested, the FBI is again engaged in a cover-up of matters the public may find of interest prior to another election.
“Now, barely a month before the 2022 midterm election, FBI officials continue to suppress information of great interest to American voters and stonewall AFL’s request for records relating to the FBI’s collusive scheme with Facebook to censor news and information about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” it reads.
‘FED’ UP: Legal Group Suing FBI for Failing to Provide Hunter Biden Censorship Info https://t.co/bKb0JclLOw
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 4, 2022
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted during a podcast with host Joe Rogan in August that Facebook had algorithmically throttled the reach on any posts involving the Hunter laptop scandal following a visit from the FBI.
“The FBI, I think, basically came to us – some folks on our team – and was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, like, you should be on high alert…’ We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election,” Zuckerberg told Rogan.
“‘We have it on notice that, basically, there’s about to be some kind of dump of that’s similar to that. So just be vigilant,’” he continued.
Zuckerberg said they were not specifically instructed by the FBI to focus on the Hunter Biden story but the company apparently did so anyway because “it basically fit the pattern” mentioned in the visit.
If you’re wondering why Facebook almost immediately censored the NYPost story on Hunter Biden’s laptop, Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan that the FBI warned the company about “Russian disinformation” right before the story went live. pic.twitter.com/H34g8NZxHw
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 25, 2022
RELATED: 33 Republican Senators Finally Start Demanding Accountability for Hunter Biden
Whistleblowers Accuse FBI of Suppressing Hunter Biden Story
The lawsuit comes amidst recent claims from Senator Chuck Grassley, who says high-ranking FBI whistleblowers have accused the FBI, along with the DOJ, of suppressing negative information about Hunter Biden prior to the 2020 election.
Grassley (R-IA), in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Garland dated July 25th, claimed the FBI had information in 2020 on alleged “criminal financial and related activity” engaged in by Hunter Biden.
Rather than investigate, the FBI reportedly set up a team to discredit it as ‘disinformation,’ a move that “caused investigative activity to cease.”
One FBI agent named by the whistleblowers as having suppressed negative information about Hunter Biden and his laptop and business dealings was Timothy Thibault, who left his position last month.
#BREAKING: Timothy Thibault OUT at the FBI.
Reminder, according to a whistleblower, Thibault shut down investigative activity related to Hunter Biden and also sought to pad the FBI’s number of “domestic violent extremism” cases. https://t.co/KLsE5cTN6W
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 29, 2022
In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Tuesday night, former Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski claimed the FBI had buried his allegations against the President and his family.
BREAKING: Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski reveals that he presented evidence to the FBI that the Bidens committed multiple felonies but FBI agent Timothy Thibault, who ran point on the investigation, never followed up with him or his lawyers. pic.twitter.com/9EmFvyzGLK
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 5, 2022
Bobulinsky said he was shocked to learn that Thibault simply left the FBI after the whistleblowers came forward to allege he had actively shut down investigations into Hunter Biden.
Grassley’s report contends that “an avenue of derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed at the direction of” Thibault.
The FBI field office, it further argues, tried to downplay news on Biden’s activity as “disinformation” even though “all of the reporting was either verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants.”
Thibault, according to Grassley, “subsequently attempted to improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future.”
This deserves at least as much attention as the one-sided Jan 6 hearing:
In October 2020, one month before the election, “an avenue of derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed” by a senior FBI agent at the bureau’s Washington Field office. https://t.co/k4ZAFtQ3wF
— David Asman (@DavidAsmanfox) July 26, 2022
“When I … found out that Tim Thibault, the FBI agent that was assigned to run point on all the information I and my lawyers provided the FBI, had walked out of the building, I was sort of flabbergasted,” Bobulinski told Carlson.
“You know, like what? This is crazy. Like when are the American people going to get the facts on all this?” he wondered.
“The fact pattern is the FBI alone altered history in that election.”
A new poll has revealed 78% of Americans say former President Donald Trump would have won the 2020 presidential election if voters had been given the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop, instead of being told it was merely “Russian disinformation.” https://t.co/pIok67YcAz pic.twitter.com/2suYhvGrf5
— Newsmax (@newsmax) September 19, 2022
AFL lead counsel Reed Rubinstein agrees.
“The evidence is that during the 2020 Presidential election campaign, the FBI conspired and combined with large corporations, including Facebook, to censor and suppress the damning evidence of Biden family corruption and influence peddling found on Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Rubinstein told Fox.
“This was done to help Joe Biden and the Democrats win the 2020 election.”
More than 30 Senate Republicans call for Hunter Biden Prosecutor to be given Special Counsel authority ->https://t.co/m9bgdIXpm4 pic.twitter.com/w8E7AJTG0g
— Mike Emanuel (@MikeEmanuelFox) September 19, 2022
Thirty-three Senate Republicans, in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland last month, are requesting the prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden be given special counsel privileges.
The letter to Merrick Garland contends that evidence suggests Hunter Biden may have committed “numerous federal crimes.”
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