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Twitter Files Lead to Firing of Company Lawyer, a Media Reckoning

Where have we heard the name James Baker before?

The storm created by the recent release of what have become known as the Twitter Files continues to soak the left-wing establishment media, the Biden White House, and the wider American left. Twitter CEO Elon Musk quickly promised more disclosures after his chosen instrument of transparency, independent journalist Matt Taibbi, posted an enticing slew of emails and other documents on the social media platform on Dec. 2. Americans were treated to that next installment late on Thursday evening, Dec. 9. Pro-Democrat journalists continue to either ignore or downplay the furor. Meanwhile, that initial document dump is still throwing up a variety of after-effects.

The second release shows in detail how Twitter employees developed systems to “shadow ban” or otherwise restrict particular users and accounts.

It appears that a certain senior figure within Musk’s company was responsible for the delay in releasing information to the public. Musk fired Twitter’s deputy general counsel, James Baker, a former FBI attorney, after finding out that Baker was “vetting” the Twitter Files before they were disclosed. “In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue,” Musk tweeted on Dec. 6, “he was exited from Twitter today.”

Twitter Files Saga Reveals a Familiar Name

Keen observers will remember that Baker was a prominent central figure in the FBI’s probe into alleged – but now debunked – collusion between former President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and the Russian government.

It is hard not to discern a pattern, here. Baker pops up, once again, in the middle of a scandal that affected, to at least some extent, the outcome of another presidential election. On both occasions, the Democrat candidate – first Hillary Clinton and then Joe Biden – benefitted from a disinformation campaign designed to sabotage Trump’s chances of victory. While the 2016 effort came up short, the 2020 conspiracy to quash the Hunter Biden laptop story might have even prevented Trump’s re-election, according to polls conducted post-election 2020.

Those in the media world eager to prevent the Hunter Biden affair from blowing up in his father’s face are still misrepresenting the facts. New York Times media correspondent Michael Grynbaum on Dec. 4 penned a piece that had denial written all over it. Grynbaum accused Musk and Taibbi of “framing” the Twitter Files as evidence of “rank censorship and pernicious influence by liberals,” when it was really, he insists, nothing more sinister than “a group of executives earnestly debating how to deal with an unconfirmed news report that was based on information from a stolen laptop.”

Regardless of how Taibbi or Musk “framed” anything, the emails speak for themselves, if you will. The 2020 Biden campaign was sending the social media platform lists of tweets it wanted restricted or removed and Twitter employees were complying with those requests. There really is no disputing that it was indeed “rank censorship.”

GettyImages-1240068340 Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Additionally, the Times is carrying on the same disinformation campaign in which the left-wing media indulged during that presidential contest. The narrative at the time was that the laptop either didn’t belong to Hunter Biden at all or it was stolen from him – presumably by the Russians – and then phony emails were released to deceive the public into believing the younger Biden, and perhaps his father, too, were involved in some shady business deals. In reality, there was not a shred of evidence that the Russians had this laptop in their possession at any time or released any fake emails.

The computer in question was dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware. Hunter Biden did not return to retrieve it. It wasn’t stolen. The owner of that shop, John Paul Mac Isaac, is suing several media outlets for defamation because of that word, “stolen.” The Daily Beast has already issued an apology to Mac Isaac.

The media is on edge because the Twitter Files affair isn’t going away any time soon. Their previous duplicity now puts left-leaning news outlets in a tight spot: Nothing they continue to say about Hunter Biden’s laptop, this latest release from Musk, or whatever else comes out will be believed by anyone. Well, perhaps there are those among their viewers and readers who, out of political loyalty to Joe Biden, simply refuse to believe anything that casts him in a negative light. Unless he decides not to run for re-election, however, both the laptop and the Twitter Files will follow the senior Biden all the way to November of 2024.

Read More From Graham J Noble

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