Jordan demands FBI turn over all communications with Twitter as probe of censorship heats up

House Judiciary Committee Republicans led by incoming Chairman Jim Jordan demanded Friday that FBI Director Chris Wray turn over records of all communications and payments the law enforcement agency had with Twitter, signaling aggressive investigations of social media censorship next year, .

Jordan's office said the release of internal files by Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, had unmasked an "ongoing surveillance operation" that exceeded FBI investigative authorities and that resulted in a "coordinated misinformation effort between the FBI and Twitter to suppress and censor free speech."

"We are investigating politicization and abuses at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as Big Tech's censorship of conservatives online," Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote Wray in an oversight letter. "Newly released information shows the FBI has coordinated extensively with Twitter to censor or otherwise affect content on Twitter's platform.

"These documents show that the FBI maintained this relationship with Twitter apart from any particularized need for a specific investigation, but as a permanent and ongoing surveillance operation. These revelations sadly reinforce our deep concerns about the FBI's misconduct and its hostility to the First Amendment," they added.

You can read the full letter here:

The letter demands that Wray turn over all communications between the bureau and the social media giant from Jan. 1, 2020 forward, singling out two dozen Twitter executives the committee is specifically interested. The letter also requests:

• all "communications between or among employees or contractors of the FBI referring or relating to content moderation on Twitter's platform."
• all documents and communications between or among employees or contractors of the FBI and employees or contractors of the other Executive Branch entities, including but not limited to the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Executive Office of the President, referring or relating to content moderation on Twitter's platform.
• all money transferred by the FBI to Twitter and any other social media company since January 1, 2016, for purported law-enforcement purposes, including the dates, amounts, and specific reasons for each transfer.

Republicans take over the House on Jan. 3. As chairman, Jordan will be able to subpoena the FBI for any of the evidence requesting in the letter that the bureau doesn't volunteer.

Jordan told Just the News earlier this week he is planning a wide investigation of the FBI and Justice Department practices, including censorship, snooping on congressional investigators, the use of confidential informants and the targeting of parents as domestic terrorists.

Recent revelations, he said, "show you how political that Justice Department has become and why we need to expose it all," Jordan said. "Because I always say the first step in stopping it is to make sure everyone knows exactly what went on."

The FBI has acknowledged extensive and regular contact with Twitter and other Big Tech companies, but insists it never ordered any firm to censor content or take "direct action." Instead, it said, it flagged content "so that they can take whatever action they deem appropriate under their terms of service to protect their platform and protect their customers."

Jordan's letter to Wray said such activity and the "FBI's close coordination with Big Tech threatens Americans' civil liberties."