WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Twitter employees are expected to testify next week before the House Oversight Committee about the social media platform’s handling of a report on President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
The scheduled testimony confirmed by the committee on Monday will be the first time the three former executives appear before Congress to discuss the company’s decision to initially block Twitter’s New York Post report on Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 election.
Republicans said the story was suppressed for political reasons, though no information has been released to support that claim. Witnesses for the February 8 hearing include former Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gade; James Baker, former deputy general counsel; and Joel Roth, former head of safety and integrity.
The hearing is the first of many in the GOP-controlled House to focus on Biden and his family as Republicans use the power of their new, albeit slim, majority.
The New York Post reported in early October 2020 that it received a copy of a laptop hard drive that Biden dropped at a Delaware computer repair shop 18 months ago and was never recovered from Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney. Twitter initially blocked people from sharing links to the story for several days.
Months later, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called the company’s communication surrounding the Post article “not good.” He added that blocking the article’s URL with “zero context” is “unacceptable”.
The Post’s article was met with skepticism at the time amid questions about the laptop’s origins, given that Giuliani’s involvement and senior officials in the Trump administration had previously warned that Russia was working to discredit Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. Kremlin in 2010 It interfered with the hacking of Democratic emails in the 2016 race, and fears are rife in Washington that Russia will meddle again in the 2020 race.
“That’s why we’re investigating the Biden family’s influence on the sale,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer said at a press conference Monday morning. “We want to make sure our national security is intact.”
The White House has tried to dismiss the Republican investigation into Hunter Biden by calling it “politically motivated.”
However, Republicans now hold subpoena power in the House, which gives them the power to compel testimony and powerful investigations. GOP staffers have spent the past year analyzing messages and financial transactions found on a laptop belonging to the president’s youngest son. Comer said the evidence they had already gathered was “impressive,” but did not provide details.
Comer has promised there will be no hearings involving the Biden family. He also said that whenever an investigation focuses on the leader of a political party, the damage is high.
Speaking at a National Press Club event on Monday, the Kentucky Republican said his tenure would not guarantee a subpoena for Hunter Biden. “We’ll go where the investigation leads, maybe there’s nothing there.”
“We’ll see,” he added.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. all rights reserved. This article may not be published, distributed, rewritten or redistributed without permission.