Trump Calls on Congress to Investigate How the ‘Deep State’ Censored Americans
03:26 GMT 12.01.2023 (Updated: 05:40 GMT 30.04.2023)
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As new batches of “Twitter Files” continue to demonstrate the extent to which Big Tech is working with US intelligence agencies to censor and ban those accused of spreading “disinformation,” the former US president has said the revelations “prove that we urgently need my plan to dismantle the illegal censorship regime” in America.
Former US President Donald Trump is calling on leaders in Congress to look into the ways the FBI and other government agencies colluded with Big Tech companies to stifle Americans’ free speech.
“The new Congress should immediately hold hearings to investigate the role of the FBI and other federal agencies in censoring lawful speech,” Trump said in a video message published Wednesday.
“Congressional leaders should promptly issue subpoenas in furtherance of this goal.”
In addition, Trump called for “a 7-year cooling off period before any employee of these powerful agencies is allowed to take a job at a major platform.”
BREAKING: Trump releases new statement slamming the FBI and other agencies for colluding with big tech to censor Americans and violating our first amendment rights.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 11, 2023
pic.twitter.com/XsrcCrpg56
The message came just a day after the House of Representatives voted along party lines to create the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, an effort that has drawn comparisons to the famed Church Committee that investigated the CIA in the 1970s.
The panel will probe the extent to which US government agencies worked to “collect, compile, analyze, use, or disseminate information about citizens of the United States, including any unconstitutional, illegal, or unethical activities committed against citizens of the United States.”
Trump's call to action made frequent reference to the Twitter Files, an ongoing series of reports into collusion between the social media giant and the US government.
Documents published in the course of the mammoth investigation have shown the FBI paid Twitter millions of dollars to suspend the accounts of users it accused of violating the platform’s policies.
“As recent reporting shows, the FBI and other rogue agencies have been systematically colluding with former national security officials placed in high positions – at Twitter and, very likely, other companies – to advance their censorship regime” and “steal an election,” Trump noted in his address.
11 January 2023, 04:01 GMT
“The now-famous 'Twitter Files' have proven beyond all doubt that the corrupt officials at the FBI have been coordinating a massive censorship, surveillance, and propaganda campaign against the American People and, frankly, against me,” the former president said.
“The Twitter Files prove that we urgently need my plan to dismantle the illegal censorship regime – a regime like nobody’s ever seen in the history of our country, or most other countries for that matter,” he continued.
“The revelations also highlight why my proposal to end the revolving door between the deep state… and the tech tyrants, is so important.”
“And there is a deep state, indeed,” Trump noted. “I wasn’t a believer but everybody’s a believer right now.”
“In the most recent and notorious example, the FBI worked to stop the truth from being told about the Biden family’s criminality.”
“They didn't want any bad information to come out about the Biden family,” Trump continued. “The fix was in. The election was rigged. But the censorship of the ‘Laptop from Hell’ is only the beginning of the story about the weaponization of government against free speech.”
On Wednesday, James Comer (R-KY), the new chairman of the powerful Oversight committee, formally requested that the US Treasury Department provide the body with information on the Biden family’s business dealings.
