'Twitter Files' publisher likens FBI's alleged behavior to CIA 'psychological operations'
Latest installment of 'Twitter Files' details cozy relationship with FBI
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Author and reporter Michael Shellenberger who helped release the latest installment of "The Twitter Files" from Elon Musk, said internal documents showed former FBI officials were so intertwined with the social media giant, they practically had their own communications system.
"The deputy chief of staff of the FBI went to Twitter. In fact, there were so many FBI officials at Twitter that they had their own internal messaging system," Shellenberger said Monday on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." "They actually had their own cue-card to kind of train people going from FBI to Twitter."
Shellenberger, a former California gubernatorial candidate, added that the FBI's influence essentially affected content moderation and information-sharing.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"You had these forces inside Twitter: former FBI officials -- particularly Jim Baker -- who very strenuously argued for the censorship of The New York Post's reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop and the emails which showed these very questionable business dealings with China and other countries," he said.
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Baker, Twitter's former deputy general counsel and a key player during the Trump "Russia-gate" timeline, was fired by Elon Musk following revelations regarding his role in handling the Hunter Biden laptop story,
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Shellenberger told host Tucker Carlson he and others spent weeks examining internal emails and Slack direct-messaging correspondence among employees at Twitter. He told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" they overall painted a picture of an intertwined relationship between certain elements of federal law enforcement – the FBI – and a private company.
Twitter has put up fact checks on government tweets in recent weeks. ((AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
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Shellenberger said the dynamic reminded him of a psychological operation a U.S. government agency like the CIA would conduct within a foreign nation – but instead this time happening domestically against media organizations and social media.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's a disturbing pattern that I think our reporting today showed," he said.
Twitter owner Elon Musk (Getty Images)
Shellenberger concluded "The Twitter Files" should reveal things that collectively are not a partisan issue, because no American should want its federal police "politicized and engaging in dirty campaign tricks."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former California gubernatorial candidate, Michael Shellenberger, and current California Governor Gavin Newsom with the Hollywood sign behind them. (Getty Images)
He said the bureau had Hunter Biden's laptop in its possession in late 2019, and later tried to persuade social media platforms there would be a leak thereof.
Shellenberger also claimed former New York City Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was under domestic surveillance, pointing out it was the then-Trump attorney who reportedly provided the laptop's contents to the New York Post; leading to its 2020 bombshell report.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"So there's a lot of smoke," he said.
"I think the bottom line is we need a serious congressional investigation, and we very well may need an independent prosecutor, to weed out these politicized elements of the FBI."