Republican Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) grilled former Twitter executives during the House Oversight Committee’s Wednesday hearing on the social media platform’s censorship efforts. Jordan dropped the hammer on Twitter’s former “Censorship Chiefs” Vijaya Gadde and Yoel Roth while grilling the pair on their decisions to suppress the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story in the days running up to the 2020 election.
“My interactions with Agent Chan and with the disgraced FBI almost entirely focused on what the disgraced FBI called malign foreign interference, things like Russian troll farms and Iranian involvement in the elections, not on any type of domestic activity,” Roth said.
“Is any of the information on there classified?” fired back an incredulous Jordan.
“No, sir,” Roth said.
“I do not hold a security clearance, and so I would not have received any classified information.”
Jordan fired back: “Who does hold a security clearance?
“I just got a second email here.
“I’m just curious about this.
“What I propose is that 30 days out from the election, this is just another email to you from Mr. Chan: ’30 that you get. We get temporary clearances. You pick who they are.’
“Who were the people at Twitter who had a security clearance?”
“To be honest, sir, I’m not sure,” Roth said.
“And we never ultimately followed through on this plan to get temporary clearance.”
“Did anyone at Twitter have a security clearance?” Jordan said.
“It’s my understanding that at least some current or former employees did hold clearances, but I wasn’t certain about that,” Roth said.
“Ms. Gadde do you know if anyone took up Mr. Chan’s offer to hand out security clearances 30 days before the 2020 election?” Jordan said.
“Not that I’m aware,” Gadde said.
Jordan said:
“I mean, it seemed like the offer was sort of just handed out like candy.
“I just wondered who had them. No one knows.
“Okay, so the disgraced FBI didn’t tell you that?
“That it was faked and tell you that it was hacked?
“And Mr. Roth, did this story violate your policies?”
“In my judgment at the time. No, it did not,” Roth replied.
Jordan said:
“Yeah, that’s what you said.
“Said what I would propose. Excuse me.
“As you said, it isn’t clearly a violation of our hacked materials policy, nor is it clearly a violation of anything else.
“So I think what a lot of people are wondering is if it didn’t violate your policies.
“And they didn’t tell you it was fake, didn’t tell you it was hacked.
“Why did you take it down?”
“The company made a decision that found that it did violate the policy,” Roth said.
“It wasn’t my personal judgment at the time that it did, but the decision was communicated to me by my direct supervisor, and ultimately, I didn’t disagree with it enough to object.”
Jordan said:
“You know what?
“You know what I think happened, Mr. Roth?
“I think I think you guys got played.
“I think you guys wanted to, wanted to take it down.
“I think you guys got played by the disgraced FBI.”
WATCH:
Rep. @Jim_Jordan grills Yoel Roth on the Hunter Biden laptop story: "I think you guys wanted to take it down. I think you guys got played by the FBI." pic.twitter.com/9jqZpiApSL
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) February 8, 2023
“We saw it, but the chairman put up where you said, you know, everyone in the White House is a fascist,” Jordan added.
“I think you guys wanted it to be taken down.
“I think you meet with these guys every week. We know that’s been established in the Twitter files.
“You had weekly meetings with Mr. Chan in the run-up to the election.
“They send you all kinds of emails. They send you documents on the super secret James Bond teleporter.
“You get information on that. I think you guys wanted to take it down.
“I think you guys got played by the disgraced FBI.
“And that’s the scary part because we had 50.
“I mean, this to me is the real take away 51 former intelligence officials.
“Five days after you guys take down the Hunter Biden story and block the New York Post account, five days later, 51 former intel officials send a letter and they say the Hunter Biden story has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.
“The information operation was run on you guys and then by extension, run on the American people.
“And that’s the concern.”
Twitter got played by the FBI. pic.twitter.com/78O2fbzWK9
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 8, 2023