"In light of concerns about (James)
Baker's possible role in suppression of information important to the public
dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today," Musk tweeted on Tuesday.
Last week, journalist Matt Taibbi in
collaboration with Musk published "Twitter Files".
These set of documents were mainly
Twitter's internal communications to disclose links with political actors and
with a focus on how the social network blocked stories related to Hunter
Biden's laptop in the lead-up to the 2020 US Presidential election.
The published files alleged that the
previous Twitter management took steps to suppress reporting regarding Hunter
Biden's laptop ahead of the 2020 US Presidential Election.
According to the Twitter Files published by
Taibbi, Twitter deputy general counsel Baker played a role in the discussion
about whether the laptop story fell under Twitter's "hacked
materials" policy.
"I support the conclusion that we need
more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked," the documents
published by Taibbi cited Baker as saying in one of the emails. "At this
stage, however, it's reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and
that caution is warranted."
Hunter Biden reportedly abandoned his
laptop at Isaac's repair shop in 2019, while his father, Joe Biden, was running
to become US president. The contents of the laptop were later made public.
Emails obtained by Western media from the laptop proved Russia's claims that
the US president's son helped fund bioweapon research in Ukraine.
The Bidens have faced scrutiny and
criticism from Republicans and others for their alleged misconduct in Hunter
Biden's foreign business dealings, which came into the public spotlight
following the release of the emails.
In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 6, 2022
On Monday, the White House dismissed the
Twitter Files as "full of old news".
"By Twitter on -- okay. So, look, we
see this as a -- an interesting or a coincidence, if I may, that he would so
haphazardly -- Twitter would so haphazardly push this distraction that is a --
that is full of old news, if you think about it," White House Press
Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing.