Jordan issues subpoenas to ex-Biden White House officials in probe into government censorship
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan issued subpoenas Thursday to two former Biden White House officials demanding information on any role they played in censoring American's opinions on social media.
The subpoenas went to White House Senior Advisor for the COVID Response Team, Andrew Slavitt and Robert Flaherty, the former Director of Digital Strategy for the Biden administration.
"The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of how and to what extent the Executive Branch has coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech," Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote in letters to both Slavitt and Flaherty.
Slavin's letter further added: "The Committee has obtained documents that demonstrate the central role you played in communicating the Biden White House’s censorship efforts to social media companies, including the White House’s demands to censor true information, memes, satire, and other constitutionally protected forms of expression."
Earlier, Jordan alleged the Biden administration was involved in pressuring Google to censor Americans on the social media platform YouTube.
In the letters, Jordan alleges that both Slavitt and Flaherty played a role in helping the government censor memes, satire and other protected forms of speech.
"To develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the Executive Branch’s ability to work with social media platforms and other companies to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee must first understand the nature of this collusion and coercion," the letters read.
The letters conclude with a request that both Slavitt and Flaherty comply with the subpoenas.
Niether Slavitt and Flaherty were available for comment at this time.
You can read the letters and subpoenas here.