Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has released several documents that appear to show how the Biden White House has colluded and, in some cases, coerced social-media companies into silencing the free speech of American citizens.
The newly released documents were found as a part of the discovery phase of Missouri, et al v. Biden, et al, a lawsuit contending that the Biden administration violated the First Amendment by directing social-media companies to censor viewpoints that were at odds with the federal government’s approved narrative regarding Covid-19 and the associated vaccines.
Louisiana A.G. Jeff Landry is also a complainant in the lawsuit.
“In order to protect the constitutional liberties of all Americans, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey continues to pursue litigation in Missouri v. Biden, a civil case demonstrating that top officials in the federal government colluded with Big tech social media companies to violate Americans’ right to free speech under the First Amendment,” read a statement from Bailey’s office.
“I want to protect Missourians and the freedoms they enjoy, which is why as Attorney General, I will always defend the Constitution. This case is about the Biden Administration’s blatant disregard for the First Amendment and its collusion with Big Tech social media companies to suppress speech it disagrees with,” Bailey said.
“I will always fight back against unelected bureaucrats who seek [to] indoctrinate the people of this state by violating our constitutional right to free and open debate.”
Among the exhibits shared by Bailey is an email from Clarke Humphrey, the White House Digital Director for the COVID-19 Response Team, matter-of-factly asking an unnamed Twitter employee to remove a post from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a well-known critic of Covid-19 vaccines.
“Wanted to flag the below tweet and am wondering if we can get moving on the process for having it removed ASAP,” Humphrey allegedly wrote. “And then if we could keep an eye out for tweets that fall in this same genre that would be great.”
A main target of Bailey’s release of documents was Biden’s Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty. Flaherty was haranguing an unnamed Facebook employee about posts from Tucker Carlson and Tomi Lahren, which were critical of Covid-19 vaccines.
“Since we’ve been on the phone — the top post about vaccines today is tucker [sic] Carlson saying they don’t work. Yesterday was Tomi Lehren [sic] saying she won’t take one. This is why I want to know what ‘Reduction’ actually looks like — if ‘reduction’ means ‘pumping our most vaccine hesitant audience with tucker [sic] Carlson saying it doesn’t work’ then…I’m not sure it’s reduction!” Flaherty allegedly wrote.
In another email, Flaherty blasted a Facebook employee for not doing more to encourage people who were hesitant about receiving the Covid-19 vaccine to ultimately choose the jab.
“Will say I’m really most interested in what effects the interventions and products you’ve tested have had on increasing vaccine interest within hesitant communities, and which ones have shown promise. Really couldn’t care less about products unless they’re having a measurable impact,” Flaherty appears to have written. “I care mostly about what actions and changes you’re making to ensure you’re not making our country’s vaccine hesitancy problem worse.”
In the same email, Flaherty accused Facebook of being complicit in the January 6 “insurrection.” After claiming that Facebook employed an algorithmic shift that increased “quality news and information” about the 2020 election, Flaherty said Facebook “helped increase skepticism” about the election and allowed “an insurrection which was plotted, in large part, on your platform.”
Among other revelations in the document release, Flaherty vehemently disagrees with a Facebook decision not to remove another Tucker Carlson video, and then generally harasses the social-media companies about decisions that they made that did not 100-percent agree with White House Covid strategy.
The so-called Twitter Files, released by Elon Musk, have been a treasure trove of information showing just how the Biden administration coordinated with social media to silence dissenting voices. The documents revealed by Bailey show out-of-control bureaucrats believing that they could simply mandate the way that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter ran their businesses.
The censorship of the election and Covid narratives weren’t all about government and Big Tech collusion. Sometimes, the government was insisting on that censorship.
