A federal judge in Louisiana has issued an order requiring officials in the Biden administration to hand over any relevant emails that were sent to social media platforms by either Dr. Anthony Fauci or White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre regarding allegations of misinformation and content censorship on social media platforms.
According to Fox News, the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana presided over by Judge Terry A. Doughty has set a deadline of 21 days for all of the emails to be turned over.
This decision was made by Judge Doughty in connection with a case that was initially brought in May by the Attorney General of Missouri, Eric Schmitt, and the Attorney General of Louisiana, Jeff Landry.
The lawsuit accuses the administration of President Joe Biden of suppressing the right to free speech on a variety of topics, including elections, the COVID lab leak theory, pandemic lockdowns, and more. The lawsuit names a number of agencies and officials as defendants, including President Joe Biden.
According to the allegations made in the case, members of the government “threatened and cajoled social-media companies for years to restrict opinions and speakers disfavored by the Left.”
This eventually led to current senior executive officials moving “into a phase of open collusion with social-media companies to suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content on social-media platforms under the Orwellian guise of halting so-called ‘disinformation,”misinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,” the lawsuit outlined. This was done in an effort to stop so-called “disinformation,” “misinformation,” and “malinformation.”
According to a story in the Washington Times, Judge Doughty has now dismissed the Biden administration’s assertion that they are entitled to protect its officials from inquiries and record demands in connection with this litigation by asserting that they are entitled to executive privilege.
“This court believes plaintiffs are entitled to external communications by Jean-Pierre and Dr. Fauci in their capacities as White House Press Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor to the President to third-party social media platforms,” Judge Doughty wrote in his decision on Tuesday. “This court believes plaintiffs are entitled to external communications by Jean-Pierre and Dr. Fauci in their capacities as White House Press Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor to the President to third-party social media
In response to this ruling, a senior administration official stated in an email to Fox News that “as we have said over and over again since the beginning of the administration in our battle against COVID-19, it has been critical for the American people to have access to factual, accurate, science-based information.”
“For instance, we put forth a lot of effort to dispel false or misleading information about the COVID vaccinations, which have helped save the lives of millions of people, and we encourage people in the United States to be vaccinated and boosted so that they may remain safe. Democrats and Republicans gathered together to urge the people to be vaccinated, emphasizing the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines,” the official added.
The email reportedly concluded, “We believe in and support freedom of speech, and we also believe it is important for all media platforms, including social media, to represent factual scientific information and combat misinformation and disinformation that can cost lives,” Fox News reported. “We also believe it is important for all media platforms, including social media, to represent factual scientific information and combat misinformation and disinformation that can cost lives.”
On Twitter, Schmitt, who is also running for a seat in the United States Senate in the state of Missouri, disclosed the latest turn of events in the legal dispute.
“BREAKING: In our lawsuit against the Biden Administration for colluding with social media companies to censor speech, the Court just ordered DOJ to produce records from key WH & HHS officials like Dr. Fauci, the WH Press Secretary, and others,” Schmitt tweeted. “Our lawsuit alleges that the Biden Administration colluded with social media companies to censor speech.”
As a “refresher on how we got here and papers that already demonstrate a large censorship business between the Biden Administration and Big tech,” Schmitt also tweeted the initial material pertaining to the complaint.
Schmitt expressed his satisfaction with Judge Doughty’s decision in a news statement.
Schmitt stated that the people of the United States need to have their questions answered on how the federal government has worked with social media firms to stifle free speech on these key platforms. “We will continue to struggle in order to disclose more of this massive industry of suppression.”
