Matt Taibbi
@mtaibbi
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Author of INSANE CLOWN PRESIDENT, I CAN’T BREATHE, SPANKING THE DONKEY, and SMELLS LIKE DEAD ELEPHANTS
Joined May 2009
There is not much a person can say to a member of Congress hiding behind the speech and debate clause of the Constitution. I can however respond to a member arrogant enough to repeat defamatory claims on social media. See below for the $10 million libel lawsuit filed today.
After this, Republicans gave Matt Taibbi time to defend himself. It’s telling that he didn’t.
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1. THREAD: The Twitter Files.THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP.Part One: October 2020-January 6th.
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Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists, the FBI has agents — lots of them — analyzing and mass-flagging social media posts. Not as part of any criminal investigation, but as a permanent, end-in-itself surveillance operation. People should not be okay with this.
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8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Handled.”
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1. THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six.TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY.
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19. White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was locked out of her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn, who seethed: “At least pretend to care for the next 20 days.”
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11. This system wasn't balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right.
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Looking forward to going through all the tweets complaining about “PR for the richest man on earth,” and seeing how many of them have run stories for anonymous sources at the FBI, CIA, the Pentagon, White House, etc.
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18. Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be “unsafe.” They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography.
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9. Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party:
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2. What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter.
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3. The “Twitter Files” tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.
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17. On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published BIDEN SECRET EMAILS, an expose based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop:
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7. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly.
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16. The Twitter Files, Part One: How and Why Twitter Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop Story.
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23. The decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.
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4. Twitter in its conception was a brilliant tool for enabling instant mass communication, making a true real-time global conversation possible for the first time.
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It's been a whirlwind 96 hours for me, too. There is much more to come, including answers to questions about issues like shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more. These issues are not limited to the political right.
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6. As time progressed, however, the company was slowly forced to add those barriers. Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters.
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12. The resulting slant in content moderation decisions is visible in the documents you’re about to read. However, it’s also the assessment of multiple current and former high-level executives.
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10.Both parties had access to these tools. For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored. However:.
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5. In an early conception, Twitter more than lived up to its mission statement, giving people “the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.”.
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24. “They just freelanced it,” is how one former employee characterized the decision. “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it.”.
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Good night, everyone. Thanks to all those who picked up the phone in the last few days.
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1. TWITTER FILES:. Statement to Congress.THE CENSORSHIP-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
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can see the confusion in the following lengthy exchange, which ends up including Gadde and former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth. Comms official Trenton Kennedy writes, “I'm struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe”:
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36.Twitter files continued: ."THE FIRST AMENDMENT ISN’T ABSOLUTE” .Szabo’s letter contains chilling passages relaying Democratic lawmakers’ attitudes. They want “more” moderation, and as for the Bill of Rights, it's "not absolute"
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26. By this point “everyone knew this was fucked,” said one former employee, but the response was essentially to err on the side of… continuing to err.
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32.Khanna tries to reroute the conversation to the First Amendment, mention of which is generally hard to find in the files:
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An amazing subplot of the Twitter/Hunter Biden laptop affair was how much was done without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, and how long it took for the situation to get "unfucked" (as one ex-employee put it) even after Dorsey jumped in.
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Congressman, I’m an American citizen, I love my country, and accusing me of repeating “Kremlin talking points” when I report something you find inconvenient is beyond reprehensible. You and your sleazy red-baiting pals in congress should be ashamed.
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1.THREAD: Twitter Files #14.THE RUSSIAGATE LIES.One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag.
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22. Although several sources recalled hearing about a “general” warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence - that I've seen - of any government involvement in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem. .
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Okay, there was more throat-clearing about the process, but screw it, let's jump forward.
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21. Strom’s note returned the answer that the laptop story had been removed for violation of the company’s “hacked materials” policy:
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20.This led public policy executive Caroline Strom to send out a polite WTF query. Several employees noted that there was tension between the comms/policy teams, who had little/less control over moderation, and the safety/trust teams:
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29. A fundamental problem with tech companies and content moderation: many people in charge of speech know/care little about speech, and have to be told the basics by outsiders. To wit:.
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1.THREAD: The Twitter Files.How Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In.
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27. Former VP of Global Comms Brandon Borrman asks, “Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?”
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30. In one humorous exchange on day 1, Democratic congressman Ro Khanna reaches out to Gadde to gently suggest she hop on the phone to talk about the “backlash re speech.” Khanna was the only Democratic official I could find in the files who expressed concern.
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28. To which former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker again seems to advise staying the non-course, because “caution is warranted”:
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1.THREAD: The Twitter Files.TWITTER AND "OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES".
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Gadde replies quickly, immediately diving into the weeds of Twitter policy, unaware Khanna is more worried about the Bill of Rights:
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33.Within a day, head of Public Policy Lauren Culbertson receives a ghastly letter/report from Carl Szabo of the research firm NetChoice, which had already polled 12 members of congress – 9 Rs and 3 Democrats, from “the House Judiciary Committee to Rep. Judy Chu’s office.”
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3. We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies.
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@bariweiss Reporters resumed searches through Twitter Files material – a lot of it – today. The next installment of “The Twitter Files” will appear @bariweiss. Stay tuned.
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@bariweiss The news that Baker was reviewing the “Twitter files” surprised everyone involved, to say the least. New Twitter chief Elon Musk acted quickly to “exit” Baker Tuesday.
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Being on that committee you should know:.- How much has been spent, and how many DHS/DOJ employees have been assigned, to monitoring and flagging social media?.- Why is the FBI asking for "location information" about ordinary Americans and media outlets like @RSBNetwork?.
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4. This first installment covers the period before the election through January 6th. Tomorrow, @Shellenbergermd will detail the chaos inside Twitter on January 7th. On Sunday, @BariWeiss will reveal the secret internal communications from the key date of January 8th.
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2. The world knows much of the story of what happened between riots at the Capitol on January 6th, and the removal of President Donald Trump from Twitter on January 8th. .
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We can now tell you part of the reason why. On Tuesday, Twitter Deputy General Counsel (and former FBI General Counsel) Jim Baker was fired. Among the reasons? Vetting the first batch of “Twitter Files” – without knowledge of new management.
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Six Degrees from James Baker: A Familiar Figure Reemerges With the Release of the Twitter Files – JONATHAN TURLEY
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 5. Whatever your opinion on the decision to remove Trump that day, the internal communications at Twitter between January 6th-January 8th have clear historical import. Even Twitter’s employees understood in the moment it was a landmark moment in the annals of speech.
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So @HillaryClinton, a former Senator, supports blocking the oversight powers of congress based on what we’ve shown in the #TwitterFiles were fantasies about Russian collusion. She needs to answer questions about the role her campaign played in manufacturing a public panic.
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The people determined to reduce the Twitter Files into a partisan pissing match are doing so precisely because the real targets of these stories aren't parties, but the FBI, DHS, DOD, and other massive state entities who've been improperly meddling in domestic speech.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 10. As the election approached, senior executives – perhaps under pressure from federal agencies, with whom they met more as time progressed – increasingly struggled with rules, and began to speak of “vios” as pretexts to do what they’d likely have done anyway.
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34.NetChoice lets Twitter know a “blood bath” awaits in upcoming Hill hearings, with members saying it's a "tipping point," complaining tech has “grown so big that they can’t even regulate themselves, so government may need to intervene.”
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham 27. Examining the entire election enforcement Slack, we didn’t see one reference to moderation requests from the Trump campaign, the Trump White House, or Republicans generally. We looked. They may exist: we were told they do. However, they were absent here.
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3. Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary.
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4. Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.
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35.Szabo reports to Twitter that some Hill figures are characterizing the laptop story as “tech’s Access Hollywood moment”:
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Congresswoman, how does badgering a non-MAGA, non-Republican journalist to give up a source constitute fighting “Extreme MAGA Republican lies”? . Can you please identify something @ShellenbergerMD or I said that is extreme, a lie, or a conspiracy theory?.
To hide their inability to legislate, Republicans have launched a dangerous political circus that’s sole purpose is to inject extremist politics into our justice system. I will continue to fight Extreme MAGA Republican lies, misinformation, and outright conspiracy theories.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 11. After J6, internal Slacks show Twitter executives getting a kick out of intensified relationships with federal agencies. Here’s Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth, lamenting a lack of “generic enough” calendar descriptions to concealing his “very interesting” meeting partners.
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6. But a surprisingly high number are requests by the FBI for Twitter to take action on election misinformation, even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 6. As soon as they finished banning Trump, Twitter execs started processing new power. They prepared to ban future presidents and White Houses – perhaps even Joe Biden. The “new administration,” says one exec, “will not be suspended by Twitter unless absolutely necessary.”
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 20. This post about the Hunter Biden laptop situation shows that Roth not only met weekly with the FBI and DHS, but with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI):
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2. The #TwitterFiles are revealing more every day about how the government collects, analyzes, and flags your social media content.
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There are multiple instances in the files of Dorsey intervening to question suspensions and other moderation actions, for accounts across the political spectrum.
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1.TWITTER FILES: Supplemental .More Adam Schiff Ban Requests, .and "Deamplification".
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 16. The latter group were a high-speed Supreme Court of moderation, issuing content rulings on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls, even Google searches, even in cases involving the President.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 8. The bulk of the internal debate leading to Trump’s ban took place in those three January days. However, the intellectual framework was laid in the months preceding the Capitol riots.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 7. Twitter executives removed Trump in part over what one executive called the “context surrounding”: actions by Trump and supporters “over the course of the election and frankly last 4+ years.” In the end, they looked at a broad picture. But that approach can cut both ways.
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1.THREAD: The Twitter Files.Twitter and the FBI “Belly Button”
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 9. Before J6, Twitter was a unique mix of automated, rules-based enforcement, and more subjective moderation by senior executives. As @BariWeiss reported, the firm had a vast array of tools for manipulating visibility, most all of which were thrown at Trump (and others) pre-J6.
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The problem with the "hacked materials" ruling, several sources said, was that this normally required an official/law enforcement finding of a hack. But such a finding never appears throughout what one executive describes as a "whirlwind" 24-hour, company-wide mess.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 17. During this time, executives were also clearly liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related content. While we’re still at the start of reviewing the #TwitterFiles, we’re finding out more about these interactions every day.
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7. The FBI’s social media-focused task force, known as FTIF, created in the wake of the 2016 election, swelled to 80 agents and corresponded with Twitter to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds.
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8. Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security, which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure Twitter to moderate content.
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Keith, talk about hackery and quoting out of context — I was responding to being labeled a “threat” and a “so-called journalist” by a politician. I’m also an actual reporter, not a shouter of other peoples’ copy at a teleprompter.
I wish @mtaibbi told me that when he insisted he was a journalist and we put him on tv 🤦🏼♂️.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 12. These initial reports are based on searches for docs linked to prominent executives, whose names are already public. They include Roth, former trust and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, and recently plank-walked Deputy General Counsel (and former top FBI lawyer) Jim Baker.
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10. The #TwitterFiles show something new: agencies like the FBI and DHS regularly sending social media content to Twitter through multiple entry points, pre-flagged for moderation.
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Over the weekend, while we both dealt with obstacles to new searches, it was @BariWeiss who discovered that the person in charge of releasing the files was someone named Jim. When she called to ask “Jim’s” last name, the answer came back: “Jim Baker.”.
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For those who continue to insist exposing the lie of Russiagate is a “right-wing” trope, here’s Jacobin reporting on the recent NYU study that of coure was largely ignored:
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“HELLO TWITTER CONTACTS”: The master-canine quality of the FBI’s relationship to Twitter comes through in this November 2022 email, in which “FBI San Francisco is notifying you” it wants action on four accounts:
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@bariweiss Baker is a controversial figure. He has been something of a Zelig of FBI controversies dating back to 2016, from the Steele Dossier to the Alfa-Server mess. He resigned in 2018 after an investigation into leaks to the press.
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The latest #TwitterFiles expose as a total lie a major Russiagate story — that the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag was fueled by Russian bots:.
1.THREAD: Twitter Files #14.THE RUSSIAGATE LIES.One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag.
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5. Some are mundane, like San Francisco agent Elvis Chan wishing Roth a Happy New Year along with a reminder to attend “our quarterly call next week.” Others are requests for information into Twitter users related to active investigations.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham The FBI's second report concerned this tweet by @JohnBasham:
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No other way to say it now: my former colleagues in mainstream media are spineless, corrupt, amoral fuckwits.
@thackerpd @davidzweig @mtaibbi @CommonSense @bariweiss @CJR @BretWeinstein @ErikWemple This is illegal. Unbelievable that mainstream press gives it a pass.
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@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 19. Pickles quickly asks if they could “just say “partnerships.” After a pause, he says, “e.g. not sure we’d describe the FBI/DHS as experts.”
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Here's you in 2018 saying the idea the FBI needed the Steele report at all to seek FISA authority is "literally laughable.". Here's the Inspector General saying the Steele Dossier played a "central and essential role" in the FBI decision to seek a FISA order. Can keep going.
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