EXCLUSIVE: A conservative legal group is suing the FBI for allegedly concealing communications between the agency and Big Tech companies, including Facebook, regarding information posted online about the contents of President Biden’s son Hunter’s explosive laptop.
America First Legal (AFL), which is led by former Trump White House advisor Stephen Miller, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in a Washington, D.C., federal court Tuesday, stating that the FBI is violating the law by failing to publicize its communications with Facebook and other Big Tech companies that worked with the agency to “censor news and information” about Hunter Biden’s laptop immediately before the 2020 presidential election.
In an August 2022 FOIA request, AFL originally requested that the FBI make public its communications with Facebook between Oct. 1 and Nov. 15 2020. In a response last week, the FBI called AFL’s FOIA request “overly broad” and did not provide the information requested. As a result, AFL moved forward with filing a lawsuit to receive the communications.
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The lawsuit states: “The evidence is that the FBI and Big Tech, including Facebook, colluded to interfere with the 2020 Presidential election first by falsely and maliciously labeling the laptop ‘Russian disinformation’ and then by censoring and/or discrediting all news about its contents.”
Biden administration officials and those in the president’s camp have long cast materials that came from the laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden as disinformation, but intelligence community officials have said, as far back as October 2020, that neither the laptop nor materials on it are part of any sort of disinformation campaign. (RMBI / BACKGRID)
“Now, barely a month before the 2022 midterm election, FBI officials continue to suppress information of great interest to American voters and stonewall AFL’s request for records relating to the FBI’s collusive scheme with Facebook to censor news and information about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” continues the lawsuit.
The contents of the laptop, which included information detailing Hunter’s overseas business dealings and ties to China and other foreign nations, have come under scrutiny by congressional leaders. Hunter is also the subject of a federal investigation into various tax violations, possible foreign lobbying violations and more.
Additionally, Facebook, now known as Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that his company censored news articles about Hunter Biden after the FBI reached out ahead of the 2020 election.
As a result, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called on Facebook in August to turn over communications between government agencies and Facebook employees regarding Hunter Biden.
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The senators also are demanding that FBI agents who provided them with an “unnecessary” briefing in August 2020 – alleging they were “advancing Russian disinformation” by investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealing – appear for a transcribed Senate interview. Johnson and Grassley were working at the time on a joint investigation into Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and his “extensive and complex financial transactions.”
The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on AFL’s lawsuit.
Biden administration officials and those in the president’s camp have long cast materials that came from the laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden as disinformation, but intelligence community officials have said, as far back as October 2020, that neither the laptop nor materials on it are part of any sort of disinformation campaign.
Hunter Biden, left, and President Biden. (Fox News)
“The evidence is that during the 2020 Presidential election campaign, the FBI conspired and combined with large corporations, including Facebook, to censor and suppress the damning evidence of Biden family corruption and influence peddling found on Hunter Biden’s laptop,” AFL’s senior counselor and director of oversight Reed Rubinstein told Fox News Digital.
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The federal investigation into Hunter Biden and his tax affairs has reached a “critical stage,” a source told Fox News. ((Randy Holmes via Getty Images))
“This was done to help Joe Biden and the Democrats win the 2020 election. Now, arrogantly disregarding the law, the FBI is stonewalling AFL’s efforts to expose the FBI’s emails detailing the tradecraft behind this collusive attack on our elections, and identifying the persons inside and outside of government who were responsible for it,” Rubinstein continued.