House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has subpoenaed FBI Agent Elvis Chan after he and the FBI tried to outmaneuver the committee as he was scheduled to testify.
On Friday, the Ohio Republican released the subpoena against Chan, in which he says that the executive branch colluded with social media companies to censor a story about Joe Biden’s son’s laptop, which Hunter Biden had dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019 and never retrieved.
The Department of Justice, in a last minute attempt to take control of the hearing, said that agent Chan would only testify if he could have a second lawyer with him.
The committee is investigating how the Hunter Biden laptop news was downplayed and even censored by social media companies. Chairman Jim Jordan, in his investigations, believes that Chan lied about the computer.
Get caught up on the Hunter Biden laptop story and how social media giants suppressed it before the election at this link:
“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of how and to what extent the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech,” Jordan wrote. “As the primary liaison between the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and social media companies, you are uniquely positioned to aid the Committee’s oversight.”
Jordan noted that a trove of documents now publicly available “reflect the weaponization of the federal government’s power to censor speech online directly and by proxy. It is necessary for Congress to gauge the extent to which FBI agents coerced, pressured, worked with, or relied upon social media and other tech companies to censor speech. The scope of the Committee’s investigation includes understanding the extent and nature of the FBI’s involvement in this censorship. For example, through its investigation, the Committee has uncovered evidence that appears to contradict several statements in your deposition in Missouri v. Biden, particularly as they relate to your communications with social media platforms.”
Of interest to the committee is how the FBI labeled “disinformation” reporting by the New York Post, which aggressively covered the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 and was “deplatformed” by Twitter, which means it lost access to its account at the social media company on Oct. 14, just before the 2020 presidential general election.
“The Committee was ready and willing to proceed with your transcribed interview under the Committee’s established protocols. After the Committee repeatedly requested that you voluntarily appear for a transcribed interview, the FBI agreed to schedule your interview for September 15, 2023, with full knowledge of the Committee’s longstanding protocol for conducting transcribed interviews. Then, only three days before your scheduled interview, you and the FBI requested special treatment to deviate from this protocol, which the Committee repeatedly and clearly denied. Just one day before your scheduled transcribed interview, you threatened to withdraw your appearance due to this disagreement and today you failed to appear for your interview,” Jordan wrote in his explanation of the subpoena.
“It is necessary for Congress to gauge the extent to which FBI agents coerced, pressured, worked with, or relied upon social media and other tech companies to censor speech. The scope of the Committee’s investigation includes understanding the extent and nature of the FBI’s involvement in this censorship,” he wrote.
The FBI says the Department did not block Chan from testifying.
“Agent Chan chose to be represented by both agency and personal counsel. He went to the Capitol this morning to testify and, instead of asking him questions, Committee staff turned him away and threatened to throw agency counsel out of the room,” the FBI reported to the Daily Mail.
By bringing in an additional counsel to the hearing, Chan and the FBI likely knew that they would trigger a conflict with the committee as they attempted to set their own rules of engagement for the congressional committee hearing.
Earlier this year, Rep. Matt Gaetz has entered the entire contents of the Hunter Biden laptop into the Congressional Record, making it a public document. The documents show the FBI took possession of the laptop in December of 2019. Read about that here:
Federal Bureau of incompetence who trusts any federal organization? The government has lied so much they have shown to the normal public that they cannot be trusted or believed. One lie after another and if they were innocent they would not have to fight at every level to hide the truth from us taxpayers and voters. This level of lawyers and finger pointing just proves how much money and power is at stake. Both sides are fighting in the cage to see who wins the spoils IE our rights as citizens and our wealth. People wake up to the corruption and deceit as it’s tearing this country down.
The way this is going I’m starting to doubt Biden is going to be the Democrats nominee!
The US government and its various agencies treat citizens exactly the same way they treat third world countries. Their Modis operandi is subversion, spying, disinformation and outright lies..
The FBI needs to be dismantled, and many people investigated for abuse of power.
It doesn’t serve a valid purpose anymore.
Nothin But A Hound Dog.
Elvis is desperately trying to leave the room.
Suspicious minds. An FBI double agent from Hunter’s past? Can’t make this stuff up.
Justice is that which is due and proper. Do right by every man within your limits of the law. Not everyone wants to be governed by the US Constitution nor do they accept the republic’s due process of law and procedural safeguards.
If you don’t want to be governed by the Constitution and due process, LEAVE.
There’s the door. Don’t let it hit you on the way out.
Try moving to Russia, Saudi Arabia, or virtually any country south of our border. You’ll miss due process then.
You are right in one regard. Many people in the country don’t want to be governed by the Constitution. They have a name:
Democrats.
I want to deflate a rationalization/argument that is likely to come up regarding this stuff. Some, including FBI Director Christopher Wray and even Sean Hannity, like to deflect criticism of the FBI by saying, repeatedly, that “these issues are isolated incidents involving only a handful of people and should not detract from the selfless sacrifice and dedicated work of thousands of FBI agents nationwide.”
This is illusion and misdirection. Contrary to the argument, the very significant problems with lying, thwarting investigations of crime and other misconduct is a reflection of a deeply FLAWED AND CORRUPT institutional culture throughout the agency. Too many at the agency “look the other way” when they see misconduct and dishonorable behavior. Throwing out a “few bad apples” will not save the agency. Rather, what is needed is a top-to-bottom change in thinking by everyone that DOES NOT TOLERATE or excuse bad conduct.
Only when the rank-and-file of the FBI demands a cultural change will this crap end.
Elvis Chan and those around him likely know they were behaving unconstitutionally. They now seek to avoid being held accountable. They are “bad apples”. Most people can recognize that. The key moment will come with the reaction of all the other FBI agents. If they tolerate and celebrate Elvis Chan, the agency will take a another big step as a political/criminal organization, not unlike the the Gestapo, Stasi, KGB or Savak in Iran.
Is that the kind of agency you want to work for, FBI agents?
I know people who “know people”, so take this with a truckload of salt. But…
I’ve been told this is an administrative thing. The rank and file mostly hate it. But they like their paychecks and sweet government pensions more.
They know pushing back will destroy them.
You and your source may be correct. If the rank and file continue to look the other way at misconduct and political games, the agency will eventually go down the tubes and take the Republic along with it.
In the TV series “Dallas” J. R. Ewing had a memorable line: “Once you have lost your integrity, the rest is easy.” The haughty FBI agents should reflect on J.R.’s wisdom. Perhaps we are well into the end stages of a country established on principles of freedom and liberty. And a little bit of integrity.
Chasing down laptops is much more important than other matters spelled out in the Constitution, I agree with Mitt Romney, the GOP has been taken over by morons
You may have missed, or failed to understand, the reference to Agent Chan’s testimony in Missouri v. Biden. This litigation, focused on government suppression of free speech, is one of the most important Constitutional cases to be litigated in the last several decades. I would suggest that you study that litigation a bit before dismissing Republicans. If you don’t care about freedom of speech, we can safely say we have nothing to discuss.
I agree with Rep Ken Buck, stop wasting time and get a budget approved. Anonymous trolls don’t move the needle
He didn’t miss. He flatly ignored.
Oh “Frank”…
You do seem to be an expert on morons.
He should just ignore the molesting wrestler
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