Free Republic

Two former senior FBI officials were taken into custody Friday after being charged with making false statements to Congress about their roles in the FBI’s investigations into Hunter Biden. Nikki Cole Floris, 46, and Bradley Benavides, 56, both face one count of making false statements in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2). The charges stem from their 2023 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in which they allegedly denied their involvement in the FBI’s Hunter Biden investigations, despite evidence to the contrary. The FBI’s affidavit alleges the pair were “actively...

House Judiciary interviews reveal that the FBI knew Hunter Biden's laptop was "real" for a long time before it was portrayed by Biden camp and mainstream media as "Russian disinformation." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The FBI agent who ran the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) during the 2020 election admitted in Congressional testimony that he advised his leadership that Hunter Biden’s laptop could be part of a Russian disinformation campaign, apparently unaware his team already knew that the FBI had obtained and corroborated the computer as “real,” according to interview transcripts reviewed by Just the News. Retired FBI Special Agent Bradley Benavides'...

An internal FBI chat log newly obtained by the Committee shows the FBI deliberately withheld information about the FBI having Hunter Biden’s laptop and an ongoing criminal investigation involving the Biden family’s corruption: “do not discuss biden matter.”

MSNBC anchor Ana Cabrera spoke to NBC News Justice and Intelligence Correspondent Ken Dilanian on Friday about the latest moves made by Trump’s new attorney general at the Department of Justice.“One of the first things Pam Bondi did as attorney general she’d just sworn in this week was halt the Justice Department’s efforts to combat foreign political interference. What do we know about that?” Cabrera asked.“She disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, which was created in 2017 by the Trump administration in the wake of Russian election interference. And it’s been working furiously ever since to try to identify...

New emails show officials at the Department of Homeland Security created a Stanford University “disinformation” group that censored Americans’ speech before the 2020 election, according to a House Judiciary Committee report exclusively obtained by The Post.

he Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency outsourced its "censorship operation" to a nonprofit it funded following a First Amendment lawsuit by Louisiana and Missouri attorneys general, "implicitly admitting that its censorship activities are unconstitutional," according to an interim staff report by House Judiciary Committee Republicans shared with Just the News. CISA also wanted to use the Center for Internet Security, which operates the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) and Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC), as its "mouthpiece" to obfuscate its own role in censorship, the report says. It cites spring 2022...

The new Foreign Malign Influence Center oversees efforts that span U.S. military, law enforcement, intelligence, and diplomatic agencies. WITHIN THE FEDERAL government, offices dedicated to fighting foreign disinformation are springing up like daisies, from the Pentagon’s new Influence and Perception Management Office to at least four organizations inside the Department of Homeland Security alone, as well as ones inside the FBI and State Department. To oversee the growing efforts — which arose in response to concerns about the impact of Russian meddling in the 2016 election but have now expanded — the director of national intelligence has created a new...

Below is my column in the Hill on the first hearings this week to be held by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. It could be one of the most consequential investigations for free speech in decades if it pulls back the curtain on government censorship programs. After the historic release of the Twitter Files by Elon Musk, questions remain on any similar coordination with other social media companies with federal agencies like the FBI to target views considered “disinformation” or “misinformation.” Here is the column: This coming week a new House select subcommittee will hold...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) met weekly with large social media platforms to collaborate on moderating content, according to a deposition this week from FBI Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan. Chan, who was one of the two FBI agents who contacted Facebook ahead of its censoring of the Hunter Biden laptop warning of potential Russian disinformation operations, said that the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) officials met weekly with social media companies to remove specific accounts ahead of the 2020 presidential election, according to his deposition cited by Missouri Attorney General...

Both FBI officials who briefed Facebook before the social media giant opted to censor The Post’s initial reporting on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop made small-dollar donations to Democrats during the 2020 election cycle, according to campaign finance records and court filings. An amended complaint released Monday by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office says Laura Dehmlow, the section chief of the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force, and Elvis Chan, who manages the cyber branch of the FBI’s San Francisco field office, were “involved in the communications between the FBI and Meta that led to Facebook’s suppression of the Hunter Biden...

The FBI team that was in communication with Facebook before the social media company censored the original Hunter Biden laptop story has been identified, according to a new court filing. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, identified the team as the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), according to an updated complaint entered late on Oct. 6. Meta named the team after receiving a subpoena in a case alleging the federal government pressured Big Tech firms to censor users. “Pursuant to the third-party subpoena, Meta has identified the FBI’s FITF, as supervised by Laura Dehmlow, and Elvis Chan as involved in the...