I wrote earlier about the incredible closeness of the contact between the FBI and Twitter, with the FBI having regular contact with people at Twitter flagging tweets for their attention. Not criminal tweets mind you, or anything with which you would think that the FBI should be concerned. But things including jokes about when election day was as part of dealing with “election misinformation.” So instead of going after BLM/Antifa organized rioters or child predators, they’re spending time flagging jokes on our dime.
In addition to the 80-person team of social media-oriented FBI agents, regular contacts to flag tweets, and weekly meetings between the FBI and other executive agencies, it turns out that there were still more deep connections between the FBI and Twitter.
We know about former FBI general counsel James Baker who went on from the FBI to join Twitter as its deputy general counsel in June 2020. Elon Musk fired him after he allegedly vetted the Twitter files without the permission of the upper management.
But it turns out there were many more people. More than a dozen former FBI officials went on to hold critical positions impacting important decisions at Twitter, including being “close to company leadership directly involved in censoring The Post’s Hunter Biden coverage in October 2020.”
Matthew Williams was a senior supervisory intelligence analyst who was in the FBI for 15 years. He was also a Democratic donor. He joined Twitter the same month as Baker. He served as “senior director of product trust, revenue policy, counsel systems & analytics at Twitter.” He noted this made him “co-lead of Trust & Safety.” That would mean that he was making decisions along with Yoel Roth, the former head of Trust and Safety, so that was a very weighty position.
Then there was the former deputy chief of staff for former FBI Director James Comey, Dawn Burton, who came on board Twitter in September 2019 as “director of strategy and operations and counsel organization.” She was also a Democratic donor and she left in July to join Google.
Jeff Carlton worked not only for the FBI but for the CIA and as an intelligence officer in the Marines. He joined Twitter in May 2021. He was part of perhaps the most critical team, the “Strategic Response Team” that dealt with all the higher level suspensions and other questions, “resolving the highest-profile Trust & Safety escalation” to ensure “healthy public conversations.” He also donated $100 to a California Democrat in 2021.
There were even more.
Kevin Michelena — 12 years as an FBI intelligence analyst — became a “Senior Corporate Security Analyst” for Twitter in July 2021. He collaborated with “public policy and site integrity leads to ensure policies are properly implemented, which has mitigated risk to users from identified threat actors.” But as the NY Post noted, his profile on LinkedIn has been “heavily redacted.”
Michael Bertrand — 23 years with the FBI in counterterrorism, internal investigations, and as chief of staff to top brass — joined Twitter in January.
Karen Walsh — more than 20 years as an FBI special agent focused on “Public-Private Sector Outreach” — joined Twitter in March 2020.
Doug Hunt — 20 years as a supervisory special agent — was made a “senior director” at Twitter, joined Feb. 2016.
Vincent Lucero — another supervisory special agent for more than 20 years — came aboard Twitter in July 2019 as a “Senior Security Manager.”
Mark Jaroszewski — another supervisory special agent — became a director of corporate security in August 2018. His job was “focused on helping the FBI create strategic, mutually beneficial relationships with the private sector.” After coming on board with Twitter, he also became a Democratic donor.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that they were looking into a lot of the aspects of the Twitter scandal, the FBI connections and if the government was running a “misinformation operation.”
So what’s going on here with this many people? Is this an effort of the government and then their former employees to have control of such a major social media organ? At this point, it seems more than a little concerning, especially when they’re going to the level of policing jokes that might offend Democrats. Elon Musk may need to do a review of who he still has working there and exactly what they are all doing.
