Stefanik hearings much ado about nothing
Stefanik hearings much ado about nothing
If you didn’t get enough football yesterday, check out `The Cookie Bowl’
By Ken Tingley
The best example of the weaponization of government seems to be the new House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
It’s kind of ironic it might have to investigate itself.
Leading the charge is our own Rep. Elise Stefanik.
“During this week’s hearing, I exposed the corrupt Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal agencies for their unconstitutional `censorship’ by surrogate’ and election meddling by using taxpayer dollars to pay Twitter to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election,” Stefanik wrote in her newsletter.
Except, that’s not really what happened.
Stefanik delivered a torrent of tweets about the corruption in the FBI and DOJ, ironically just days days after she invited the Montgomery County sheriff to be her guest at the State of the Union so she could show her support for the blue before investigating the blue later in the week.
The root of this latest conspiracy is the revelation that Twitter had received $3.4 million in payments from the FBI since 2019.
The New York Post, a New York City tabloid with a glorious reputation of sensational headlines to sell as many papers as possible, concluded in December the payments to Twitter were to “ban accounts largely linked to conservative voices and target so-called foreign influence operations” after its stories was taken down by Twitter right before the election in 2020.
But before the “weaponization” committee folks even met, factcheck.org had explained the payments.
Before we go there, factcheck.org describes itself as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in the U.S, politics.” It is based at the University of Pennsylvania.
What factcheck.org found was that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies has the right to get stored communications from companies like Twitter if it is approved by a judge. The law also says that the companies can demand reimbursement as guaranteed by federal law.
That is what happened here.
The FBI told factcheck.org it paid Twitter for “searching for, assembling, reproducing, or otherwise providing” what the agency needed for legal reasons, such as an investigation. The FBI also said, “we never direct or ask them (Twitter) to take action.”
But what if the FBI lying?
That seems to be where Stefanik’s committee is going, although it hasn’t provided any evidence other than the FBI paying what it owed Twitter.
It reminded me of a another member of Congress who once claimed their were communists in the federal government in the 1950s.
Factcheck.org found an email where Twitter’s Safety, Content and Law Enforcement division started “a reimbursement program for the time spent processing requests from the FBI.”
The program sounds a lot like what newspapers deal with when they file Freedom of Information requests from government agencies. The government is allowed to charge for services such as copying, etc. The Twitter email goes on to say, “I am happy to report we have collected $3.415,323 since October 2019!”
The fact checkers concluded there was no evidence the payments were used to suppress information.
Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former chief security officer, said, “This claim is false. This is nothing to do with content moderation.”
Riana Pfefferkorn, a research scholar at Stanford who studies electronic surveillance and data access by U.S. law enforcement, told USA Today, “The Stored Communications Act Is about disclosure of information, not removal of information.”
“Reimbursement of costs is for a narrow set of activities that providers take in response to formal process (that is receipt of warrants or subpoenas) all as required by statute,” Randall Milcho, cochair of the New York University Center for Cybersecurity and the former general counsel at Verizon Communications, told factcheck.org.
The fact check was published on Feb. 6.
I found it with an easy search. Yet, Rep. Stefanik continued to charge forward.
“I will continue to lead the charge to root out corruption in our government agencies,” Stefanik also wrote in her newsletter. “Accountability is coming and we will get to the bottom of this and deliver the truth and accountability on behalf of the American patriots who have been unfairly targeted by corrupt government agencies.”
It seems to me Rep. Stefanik would be wise to move on to the next perceived bit of corruption. There does not seem to be much here.
The Cookie Bowl
After reading about my love for penguins, Patrick Barber made me some penguins. They were really cool and for the longest time I resisted eating them, but I eventually did. They were good.
But Patrick has taken his cookie baking to an entire new level this weekend with a collection of cookies and accompanying video that celebrate the Super Bowl or in this case the Cookie Bowl.
This will brighten your day
Support theater
The Adirondack Theater Festival fundraiser Saturday night was sold out at the Park Theater in Glens Falls.
The Beatles theme with the band “Across the Pond” was a big hit.
ATF also announced its lineup for the summer season. This year, it will be a full lineup of original musicals.
Check it out:
More events
I will be speaking to a journalism class at RPI today, then to the Glens Falls Kiwanis on Wednesday at noon, then I will have a bit of a break before having at event at the Greenwich Public Library in March.
E'lies' is truly turning into a nut job!! I think her mental stability should be investigated!!!
She will distort whatever is there to serve her purpose or just make up something. If you say it, they will believe it these days.