A Louisiana judge has ordered two Biden administration officials to turn over emails to social media platform giants regarding the alleged misinformation and the censorship of content within 21 days.
Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, is forcing White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Dr. Anthony Fauci to hand over their communications to the social media platforms. (RELATED: Team Biden Reveals They've Been Ordering Big Tech to Censor Critics)
The judge's decision follows a previous lawsuit brought by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry which accused the Biden administration of deliberately suppressing the constitutionally protected right to free speech on elections, the COVID-19 origin theory, lockdowns and various other issues.
The Justice Department has refused to provide email correspondence, claiming the messages are protected by executive privilege and presidential communications privilege.
However, Judge Doughty opposed the administration's argument writing, “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.”
Schmitt announced the breaking development on his Twitter account on Tuesday.
Fox News reports:
In their initial filing, he and Landry argued that “having threatened and cajoled social-media platforms for years to censor viewpoints and speakers disfavored by the Left, senior government officials in the Executive Branch have moved into a phase of open collusion with social-media platforms under the Orwellian guise of halting so-called ‘disinformation,' ‘misinformation,' and ‘malinformation'.”
“As a result of these actions, there has been an unprecedented rise of censorship and suppression of free speech – including core political speech – on social media platforms,” the lawsuit says. “Not just fringe views, but perfectly legitimate, responsible viewpoints and speakers have been unlawfully and unconstitutionally threatened in the modern public square.”
In response to the ruling, an administration official told Fox News that as a general matter, “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 example, we worked hard to debunk inaccurate or misleading information about the COVID vaccines that have saved millions of lives and encourage Americans to get vaccinated and boosted to stay safe,” the Biden administration official said by email. “Democrats and Republicans came together to urge the public to get vaccinated, stressing the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.”
This isn't the first time judge Doughty has pushed against the administration's authoritarian measures. Last November, the Louisiana judge filed a preliminary block against Biden's vaccine mandate for health care workers.
This story is developing. Stay with American Liberty News for the latest updates.
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But wait – Didn’t OBiden just declare Executive Privilege null and void?
Didn’t Zuckerberg just say he was instructed by the White House to censor speech OBiden doesn’t agree with?
Kudos to this judge!
Kudos is correct but does anyone believe this corrupt administration will comply rather than eliminate the judge one way or another?
I guess the moron administrator in the white house refuses to admit that much of the “disinformation” they censored turned out to be true, while most of their “science-based” BS turned out to be blatant lies told for political gain.
I can’t imagine why the administration would resist the public knowing all that was said to the tech giants for such a laudable purpose. I would think they would be proud to share with the public the extent they have been looking out for everyone’s health and welfare.
Bet they don’t wind up giving up the emails. They will find some way to keep them from being seen. Crooks are good at that.
Aha! Was the pot calling the kettle black? This White House is far filthier and more corrupt than Donald Trump. The Donald, for all his ‘mean’ tweets, did not conspire to rob us of all our liberties.