Federal Judge Orders Biden Administration to Turn Over Documents in Social Media Collusion Lawsuit

Top-ranking officials in the Biden Administration and five social media giants have 30 days to respond to subpoenas and discovery requests in a lawsuit alleging the government colluded with social media companies to suppress freedom of speech “under the guise of combatting misinformation.”

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry on Wednesday served third-party subpoenas on Twitter, Meta, Youtube, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Schmitt and Landry on Tuesday filed discovery requests seeking documents and information from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former Disinformation Governance Board executive director Nina Jankowicz.

Discovery requests were also sent to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Jen Easterly and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“In May, Missouri and Louisiana filed a landmark lawsuit against top-ranking Biden Administration officials for allegedly colluding with social media giants to suppress free speech on topics like COVID-19 and election security,” said Attorney General Schmitt in Tuesday’s press release.

Schmitt continued:

“Earlier this month, a federal court granted our motion for expedited discovery, allowing us to collect important documents from Biden Administration officials. Yesterday, we served discovery requests and today served third-party subpoenas to do exactly that. 

“We will fight to get to the bottom of this alleged collusion and expose the suppression of freedom of speech by social media giants at the behest of top-ranking government officials.”

Schmitt announced in a statement on July 12 that Terry Doughty, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, ruled in favor of a June 17 motion for Expedited Preliminary Injunction-Related Discovery and set a timetable with specific deadlines for depositions.

According to Schmitt, government officials “both pressured and colluded with social media giants Meta, Twitter and Youtube to censor free speech in the name of combating so-called ‘disinformation’ and ‘misinformation,’ which led to the “suppression and censorship of truthful information on several topics, including COVID-19.”

“The Court’s decision cleared the way for Missouri and Louisiana to gather discovery and documents from Biden Administration officials and social media companies,” Schmitt said in a press release on Tuesday. “The order states, ‘The First Amendment obviously applies to the citizens of Missouri and Louisiana, so Missouri and Louisiana have the authority to assert those rights.’”

In a statement on Twitter announcing the court’s decision to grant the attorneys general’s request, Schmitt said, “No one has had the chance to look under the hood before – now we do.”

Fauci, CDC, White House Press secretary and more hit with interrogatories

According to the press release, Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Biden and director of the NIAID was asked to turn over any communications with social media platforms related to content modulation and/or misinformation, to disclose all meetings with any social media platform related to the subject and to provide all communications with Mark Zuckerberg from January 1, 2020, to the present.

Fauci must, among other requests, also turn over all communications with any social media platform related to the Great Barrington Declaration, the authors and original signers of the Great Barrington Declaration, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Scott Atlas, Alex Berenson, Dr. Peter Daszak, Dr. Shi Zhengli, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, EcoHealth Alliance and/or any member of the so-called “Disinformation Dozen.”

White Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is required to identify every officer, official, employee, staff member, personnel, contractor or any other person associated with the White House Communications Team who communicated or is communicating with any social media platform related to content modulation and/or misinformation — and to turn over those communications. 

Jean-Pierre must identify all persons who “engage[s] regularly with all social media platforms about steps that can be taken” to address misinformation on social media, which engagement “has continued, and … will continue,” as stated during an April 25, 2022, White House press briefing — and turn over all communications with any social media platform involved in such engagement.

Defendant Nina Jankowicz, who was tasked with heading up the Biden administration’s “Disinformation Governance Board” must provide all documents related to communications with social media platforms and content modulation and/or misinformation. 

Jankowicz is required to identify the nature, purpose, participants, topics to be discussed and topics actually discussed at the meeting between DHS personnel and Twitter executives Nick Pickles and Yoel Roth scheduled on or around April 28, 2022, and more.

The CDC is required to provide the names of every officer, official, employee, staff member, personnel, contractor or agent of CDC or any other federal official or agency who communicated or is communicating with any social media platform regarding content modulation and/or misinformation.

The CDC must disclose communications with any social media platform related to content modulation or misinformation, any meetings that have taken place with social media platforms related to content modulation and/or misinformation and must identify all “members of our senior staff” and/or “members of our COVID-19 team” who are “in regular touch with … social media platforms,” as “Jennifer Psaki stated at a White House press briefing on or around July 15, 2021.”

The agency must also disclose all “government experts” who are federal officers, officials, agents, employees, or contractors, who have “partnered with” Facebook or any other social media platform to address misinformation and/or content modulation, including all communications relating to such partnerships.

Like Fauci, the CDC must turn over information and communications on the “so-called disinformation dozen,” Great Barrington Declaration, alternative news outlets and key experts and scientists who have spoken out against the government’s approach to treating COVID-19, mandatory face masks and lock-downs.

Meta (Facebook) was “commanded” to produce all communications with any Federal official relating to misinformation and/or content modulation, to produce all documents and communications related actions taken based in whole or in part on information received, directly or indirectly, from any Federal Official and to produce all communications and documents related to a list of search terms that include the names of prominent doctors and physicians who were censored for their views on COVID-19, Kennedy and more. 

Facebook must also disclose meetings, communications and documents related to remarks made by former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who said the White House is “in regular touch with these social media platforms, and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff, but also members of our COVID-19 team,” and regarding the White House’s efforts to flag “problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.”

Similar requests were made to other government officials and social media platforms, including Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.   

Lawsuit alleges collusion to suppress disfavored speakers and viewpoints  

Attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri in May filed a landmark lawsuit alleging government defendants “colluded with and/or coerced social media companies to suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content on social media platforms by labeling the content “disinformation, ‘misinformation’ and ‘malinformation.’” 

The four-count lawsuit alleges social media companies falsely labeled truthful content “disinformation” and “misinformation,” and contends the suppression constitutes government action, violating free speech protected by the U.S. constitution. 

The complaint also alleges that DHS’ Disinformation Governance Board was created “to induce, label, and pressure the censorship of disfavored content, viewpoints and speakers on social-media platforms,” and that HHS and DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act. 

The lawsuit provides several examples of truthful information that was censored by social media companies who later admitted the content was truthful or credible. The lawsuit could reveal the Biden administration’s “behind-the-scenes efforts” to discourage the dissemination of information related to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19’s origins and the efficiency of masks and lockdowns.