FBI facing subpoenas after Twitter Files, Rep. Mike Turner says
Republican Rep. Mike Turner said the FBI is facing subpoenas after the Twitter Files released by CEO Elon Musk showed ‘the coordination that was occurring between the FBI’ and the social media company.
‘We are definitely pursuing the Department of Justice and also the FBI,’ Turner told ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.
‘And luckily, the January 6 committee has established some great legal precedent that shows the Congress has full access,’ Turner, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, added. ‘So they’re going to have very much a difficult time trying to prevent us getting those documents, and I think it will show a very troubling pattern. And we’re also gonna be looking for who the mastermind is since this is not based on intelligence, this is not foreign malign actors, that the malign actors transmit the FBI themselves.’
Substack writer and journalist Matt Taibbi revealed Friday that employees of the FBI contacted workers at Twitter to notify them of accounts that ‘may’ constitute violations of the company’s terms of service. The Twitter Files began dropping more than two weeks ago.
‘So you can cut off the money that you can defund this operation?’ Bartiromo asked Turner.
‘Since the Republicans are taking the House, this will be one of the number one targets to make certain that the FBI does not fund this activity, which is clearly, you know, beyond the scope of what the FBI should be doing, is very constitutionally troubling,’ Turner continued.
Taibbi tweeted several internal emails between Twitter workers and FBI employees as part of the sixth installment of the Twitter Files on Friday.
‘Hello Twitter contacts, FBI San Francisco is notifying you of the below accounts which may potentially constitute violations of Twitter’s Terms of Service for any action or inaction deemed appropriate within Twitter policy,’ one email FBI employee wrote in an email on Nov. 10, 2022.
The email listed several Twitter accounts that might violate the social media company’s terms of service.
A Twitter employee responded that three of the four accounts were suspended.
‘I’ve reviewed this already from the TD perspective and suspended three of the accounts for multi-account abuse and ban evasion violations,’ the Twitter employee wrote.
Stacia Cardille, a former attorney for Twitter, additionally appeared to suggest in a summary of her meeting with government law enforcement agencies to Twitter’s former deputy general counsel Jim Baker on Sept. 16, 2021 that the FBI could share classified information with the social media giant.
The latest drop has set off a firestorm from conservatives, with the GOP House Judiciary Committee account, which is managed by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, asking: ‘Does anyone still trust the FBI?’
‘[The] FBI has a lot to answer for after the latest drop of Twitter Files 6,’ Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz tweeted Friday.
Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report.