WASHINGTON (TND) — Newly released internal conversations at Twitter reveal the social media platform temporarily quieted the potentially politically damaging Hunter Biden laptop story just weeks before his father won the presidency.
The suppressed New York Post article from October 2020 disclosed emails on Hunter’s laptop allegedly connected Joe Biden to his son’s international business deals. These alleged deals took place while now President Joe Biden was vice president.
"The question is why was he getting that money and he was getting the money because of who his father was so his father plays a role either directly or indirectly in this drama and that’s why I think it’s so important to investigate it," explained Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute.
In a string of tweets now dubbed the "Twitter Files," journalist Matt Taibbi shows the company decided to suppress the story because it believed it included hacked materials — but without any evidence of such hacking.
According to Taibbi, “Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be “unsafe.” they even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography.”
Trump’s Press Secretary Kaleigh McEnany even locked out of her account after tweeting about the story.
"They made the decision to kill what I think is a very important story based on nothing other than the requests of certain actors," said Schweizer.
Twitter reportedly granted requests from both the Trump and Biden teams to remove certain tweets but Taibbi alleges the practice wasn’t balanced because Twitter was “overwhelmingly” staffed by the left.
Biden has repeatedly denied any involvement in his son's business affairs saying last month, "I think the American public wants to move on and get thighs done for them.”
Incoming House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and his fellow Republicans are set to launch investigations as early as next month into whether the president is directly tied to his son’s business deals.