WASHINGTON, DC- Documents received through FOIA requests and new litigation show a concerted effort by an agency within the Department of Homeland Security to tie the Hunter Biden laptop to QAnon and Russia after the New York Post’s bombshell story published only weeks before the 2020 general election, Just The News reports.
According to heavily redacted emails from DHS turned over to America First Legal, the Mis-, Dis-, and Malinformation Team (MDM) within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) acted quickly after the Post’s story broke, deciding on a narrative that would pin the blame for the laptop on Russia and the mysterious boogeyman QAnon, deciding within a week to lay the blame on those two entities.
That decision was made even though the FBI confirmed the authenticity of the laptop about one year earlier, according to a “contemporaneous IRS memo,” the outlet reported, with the MDM acting non-interested in the authenticity and integrity of the Post’s reporting.
America First Legal isn’t the only one investigating the government’s response to the laptop. Judicial Watch announced earlier in the week they had filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Justice seeking information on FBI payments to Twitter (now “X”). That came as a result of disclosures made in the so-called “Twitter files” information dump authorized by Elon Musk.
That information alleged that the FBI paid Twitter nearly $3.5 million for staff time to process requests to throttle information. The FBI denied the FOIA request, claiming a “sources and methods” exemption. That exemption prevents releasing information that could allegedly “compromise” ongoing investigations and is something the FBI has routinely used to evade media and congressional inquiry.
Last week, Judicial Watch sued the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for ignoring a request for National Counterterrorism Center records and communications regarding a division called the “Foreign Malign Influence Center, the existence of which wasn’t even acknowledged until a May congressional hearing.
All the above provides ammunition for House Republicans, who are probing the information revealed in the Hunter Biden laptop. Republicans can continue their investigations now that a new speaker, Mike Johnson (R-La.), has been chosen. Republicans are also trying to reign in CISA, which was the topic of an interim report filed in June by staffers on the House Judiciary Committee.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is leading a “lone crusade” against the expansion of CISA, according to the anti-censorship group Reclaim the Net, which says Paul’s continual “no” votes on cybersecurity bills as the Republican’s Homeland Security Committee’s top Republican member signals his opposition to the organization.
Just the News contacted CISA to inquire about the MDM Team’s breakneck interest in the bombshell New York Post report, whereby they gave “a nearly identical statement as its response to the Judiciary GOP staff report.”
“CISA does not and has never censored speech or facilitated censorship,” Executive Director Brandon Wales wrote. A second version of the statement omits the words, “any such claims are patently false.”
According to Wales, CISA “protects Americans’ freedom of speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy” while pursuing its mission.
“In response to concerns from election officials of all parties regarding foreign influence operations and disinformation that may impact the security of election infrastructure, CISA mitigates the risk of disinformation by sharing information on election literacy and election security with the public and by amplifying the trusted voices of election officials across the nation.”
CISA signaled its plan for dealing with the Biden laptop just over a week after staff flagged the Post’s report about the Obama administration allegedly giving a Burisma energy PR official access to a conference call about Joe Biden’s upcoming Ukraine visit.
In a weekly update which was supposed to deal with COVID-19 on Oct. 22 from CISA’s COVID-19 Countering Foreign Influence Task Force, sent to then-Public Affairs Director Sara Sendek, “CISA Central” and redacted colleagues, it didn’t speak to the pandemic whatsoever.
For example, one shared news report came from far-left Axios, which addressed “[r]ecent reports about what was purported to be Hunter Biden’s computer hard drive” that has “sparked renewed activity from Q[Anon]” in 16 posts the same day as the Post’s expose.
Axios then analogized believing the laptop was authentic was the same as accepting the so-called “Pizzagate” child sex trafficking theory.
On Oct. 22, consulting firm Deloitte continued expanding on the talking points in an analysis for CISA found near the end of another FOIA result. In this report, “elections” is listed as the report's subject.
The “MDM” Narrative Analysis” uses code in referring to the Post reporting, then-presidential nominee Joe Biden, and Hunter. It cites an Oct. 15 “American daily tabloid newspaper” report with “unsubstantiated allegations” about Hunter introducing “the big guy” to Burisma executives.
After Facebook and Twitter blocked the article, removed posts citing it, and locked accounts sharing it, “Russian state-owned media outlets,” including RT, slammed the platforms for censorship and “mainstream American media outlets for not reporting this unsubstantiated claim,” the analysis reads.
It continued, warning that “[s]everal accounts exhibiting bot-like activity have retweeted popular posts” about tech and media suppression of the reporting, even while acknowledging “[m]ost of the engagement with the article resulted from a liberal media personality” who focused on Russian media interest in the story.
Deloitte suggested the so-called “narrative” includes language that suggests a “deep state” exists and a “larger conspiracy to protect global elites like the Democratic presidential nominee’s family.” The allegation was that Russian outlets may be targeting “anti-establishment accounts, including QAnon conspiracy theorists.”
Deloitte continued that such a narrative could “potentially disrupt the ability to hold free and fair elections by using MDM to degrade the image of a presidential candidate to influence the outcome of the election.”
Deloitte also suggested that such “could also sow distrust in the US electoral system and the results of the election.”
Not happy with squelching conservatives in the 2020 election, Democrats are at it again, pushing tech platforms to censor any narrative that runs counter to that of Democrats.
Leading the charge are failed 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.), who have pressed Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder, and Executive Chairman, to tell Congress how it will stop “the spread and amplification of election misinformation and disinformation” on its AI voice assistant, Alexa.
Their letter, dated Oct. 18, cited a Washington Post report that in 2020, Alexa checked “less-moderated platforms” in response to fraud allegations, which Amazon said were “quickly fixed errors that were delivered a small number of times.”
Unlike YouTube, which routinely censors content that doesn’t fit the desired narrative, its competitor Rumble allows content that alleges the election was “stolen by a massive amount of election fraud.” Meanwhile, content on Substack, a subscription newsletter, alleged it was “notorious for many incidents of irregularities and indications” of election fraud in “major metro centers.”
In their letter, Klobuchar and Morelle asked Bezos how the tech giant enables “users or others to raise concerns or complaints of misinformation shared by Alexa,” how it is “vetting responses from contributors,” and what “additional protections” it is planning for the 2024 general election. They asked for a response by Nov. 3.
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