Is the United States government permanently corrupted? A series of online posts posted by Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi revealed that former FBI lawyer James Baker, the man who approved the questionable Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant used to spy on the Trump campaign, played a key role in covering up the Hunter Biden laptop story.
These so-called “Twitter Files” were posted online by Twitter CEO Elon Musk Friday afternoon, detailing political actions by the platform pertaining to the Hunter Biden laptop story, among other things.
Per Twitter posts made by Taibbi, Baker, who was Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel at the time, alleged it was “reasonable to assume” the information “may have been” hacked and urged that “caution is warranted.”
1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
“I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked. At this stage, however, it is reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and that caution is warranted,” Baker wrote in an email, per Taibbi. “There are some facts that indicate that the materials may have been hacked, while there are others indicating that the computer was either abandoned and/or the owner consented to allow the repair shop to access it for at least some purposes.”
“We simply need more information,” Baker apparently concluded.
28. To which former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker again seems to advise staying the non-course, because “caution is warranted”: pic.twitter.com/tg4D0gLWI6
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
The Twitter Files were covered thoroughly on Fox News’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” with show host Tucker Carlson arguing that the leaked documents show, “a systemic violation of the First Amendment, the largest example of that in modern history.”
“Those documents show a systemic violation of the First Amendment, the largest example of that in modern history. Twitter was permanently censoring users at the request of the DNC and the Biden campaign."
~ Tucker Carlson #twitterfiles pic.twitter.com/gUMVEYIsvq
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) December 3, 2022
Carlson additionally pointed out that Twitter was “permanently censoring users at the request of the DNC and the Biden campaign.”
The Daily Caller reported on Baker’s questionable history with the FBI:
Baker previously worked as general counsel for the FBI and testified in 2018 that he personally reviewed the FISA application against Carter Page. FBI investigators initially sought a FISA warrant against Page in August 2016. Lawyers with the FBI rejected the proposal, saying they needed to have more information to support allegations that Page was a Russian agent before approving the warrant.
When former British spy Christopher Steele provided the FBI with six memos from the now-infamous “Steele dossier” in September 2016, the FBI approved the warrant.
The former FBI Lawyer has claimed in the past that it would be “preposterous” to suggest the FBI would not have properly vetted the infamous Steele dossier.
“When a source shows up with a big stack of information, as in this case, you go to work. It came in from what appears to be a reliable source. He gives you all this information. Go to work. Try to validate it,” he alleged during an interview with Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes on May 10, 2019.
“You don’t just swallow it hook, line and sinker. That’s not what we do. That’s preposterous. That does not happen,” he said.
Twitter reportedly did not immediately respond to a Daily Caller request for comment on if Baker remains employed with the company.
