House representative warns Twitter execs they could go to jail; FBI responds to allegations of censorship

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House Rep. Clay Higgins warns Twitter of repercussions

House Rep. Clay Higgins warned former Twitter executives on Wednesday of possible arrest for interfering with 2020 presidential election.

Former Twitter executives who met with the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday were given a stern warning from one representative, who said arrests were coming their way.

The purpose of the hearing was to address how Twitter blocked the sharing of a report on Hunter Biden’s laptop by the New York Post prior to the 2020 election.

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in May 2021 that blocking the Hunter Biden story was a "total mistake."

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Still, during questioning, several members of the House Oversight Committee, including Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., were firm in their questioning of the representatives who appeared on Wednesday.

Higgins told Twitter’s former Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, former Twitter deputy counsel James Baker and Anika Collier Navaroli, a former employee at Twitter, that the bottom line was the FBI had the "Biden Crime Family" laptop for a year, knowing it was leaking and that those leaks would hurt the Biden campaign.

From left, James Baker, former deputy general counsel at Twitter Inc.; Vijaya Gadde, former chief legal officer of Twitter Inc.; Yoel Roth, former global head of trust and safety at Twitter Inc.; and Anika Collier Navaroli, former employee at Twitter Inc., are sworn in during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Anna Rose Layden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Higgins accused the FBI of using its relationship with Twitter to suppress criminal evidence against Joe Biden, a month before the 2020 election.

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"You, ladies and gentlemen, interfered with the United States of America 2020 presidential election, knowingly and willingly," Higgins said. "That’s the bad news, it’s gonna get worse because this is the investigation part. Later comes the arrest part. Your attorneys are familiar with that."

The FBI rejected the characterization of an inappropriate relationship with Twitter and issued a statement in response to Higgins' comments.

"The FBI does not instruct or direct any social media company to censor an account or remove information from their platform. In carrying out its law enforcement mission, the FBI receives voluntarily provided information from these companies, when the company believes there is a serious risk of death or serious physical injury," the FBI said in a statement obtained by Fox News correspondent David Spunt. 

"In addition, the FBI also shares identified malign foreign influence information with these companies. The information we provide in these circumstances is specific to foreign actors — such as Russia, China, and Iran and their activities, we do not provide information based on content or narratives without attribution to a foreign actor. We may also alert social media companies about intentional attempts to post disinformation about voting times, places, or dates, which may be a federal crime. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers in response to information we share."

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Fox News' David Spunt contributed to this story.