Twitter employed multiple former spies from the intelligence community leading up to the 2020 election, according to the seventh tranche of “Twitter Files” released Monday by journalist Michael Shellenberger.
Among the ex-spies who worked for Twitter was James Baker, the FBI’s former general counsel, who was a key participant in pushing the 2016 Russia hoax against former President Donald Trump. Baker left the FBI in 2018 and joined the far-left Brookings Institution and CNN after his departure. In 2020, he joined Twitter as the “Deputy General Counsel and Vice President, Legal,” according to Baker’s LinkedIn. During his tenure, he played a key role in suppressing the New York Post’s first story on Hunter Biden’s “Laptop from Hell.”
“As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — ‘Bu alumni’ — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals,” Shellenberger revealed:
28. Baker wasn't the only senior FBI exec. involved in the Trump investigation to go to Twitter.
Dawn Burton, the former dep. chief of staff to FBI head James Comey, who initiated the investigation of Trump, joined Twitter in 2019 as director of strategy.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Monday’s “Twitter Files” showed the FBI wanted to share information with Twitter employees that required a top secret security clearance. Twitter pointed the FBI to Baker. The FBI warned Twitter before the 2020 election of a Russian disinflation campaign. When the Post dropped the first Hunter’s laptop story, Baker repeatedly insisted via internal Twitter communications “that the Hunter Biden materials were either faked, hacked, or both, and a violation of Twitter policy,” Shellenberger said.
Baker was fired in December by Twitter CEO Elon Musk for his “possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue,” Musk tweeted on December 6. Musk’s statement appeared to reference Baker’s suppression of the “Twitter Files,” which revealed that Twitter violated the First Amendment and campaign finance law, according to Tucker Carlson.
Dawn Burton is another ex-spy the “Twitter Files” have exposed as a former member of the intelligence community employed by the platform. Burton was the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former FBI Director James Comey who initiated the 2016 Russia hoax. Breitbart News reported, “Burton would have been close to the FBI’s Hillary Clinton email investigation due to her connection with Comey and the agency’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.”
Burton joined Twitter in 2019 as “Senior Director, Strategy & Operations for the Legal, Public Policy, and Trust & Safety Organization,” her LinkedIn says.
In September 2019, Twitter employed the infamous James Comey as the director of strategy and operations and counsel organization. Comey was nominated in 2013 by former President Barack Obama as the FBI director. Comey’s nomination was controversial because of his previous employment with Lockheed Martin and his association with the Clinton Foundation. Breitbart News reported:
Lockheed Martin is a Clinton Foundation donor. The company admitted to becoming a Clinton Global Initiative member in 2010.
According to records, Lockheed Martin is also a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, which paid Bill Clinton $250,000 to deliver a speech in 2010.
In 2010, Lockheed Martin won 17 approvals for private contracts from the Hillary Clinton State Department.
Baker, Burton, and Comey were not the only ex-spies working with Twitter. The Post recently reported Twitter’s ranks were filled with ex-spies, some who are likely still employed by the platform.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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