A U.S. House of Representatives panel has subpoenaed an FBI official after the official did not appear for a scheduled interview.
The House Judiciary Committee issued the subpoena for Elvis Chan, an FBI official based in San Francisco who works closely with Big Tech companies.
The FBI and the panel reached an agreement for Mr. Chan to testify on Friday but Mr. Chan “failed to appear,” according to the subpoena’s cover letter (pdf).
“I would have liked to hear what Elvis Chan had to say, but he decided not to show,” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), a member of the panel, said in a statement.
Lawmakers blamed the FBI along with Mr. Chan, saying they tried to change established protocol three days before the interview. The panel’s subpoena carries the threat of prosecution if Mr. Chan does not comply.
An FBI spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that Mr. Chan went to Washington to participate in the interview but that he was “denied the right to have his chosen legal counsel accompany him.”
“The FBI employee remains willing to take part in a voluntary interview with appropriate legal representation,” the spokesperson said. “The FBI recognizes the importance of congressional oversight and will continue to proceed in accordance with the long established accommodations process.”
Work With Companies
The committee has described Mr. Chan as “a key player in the federal government’s censorship regime.”
Mr. Chan regularly met with companies like Facebook and flagged specific posts for the firms to take action against, according to documents released by Twitter and in court cases.
Mr. Chan and other officials also communicated through email and encrypted applications like Signal.
In a single message to Twitter in 2020, Mr. Chan flagged 25 accounts, including the news outlet Right Side Broadcasting Network, writing that the posts “may warrant additional action due to the accounts being utilized to spread misinformation about the upcoming election.”
Mr. Chan said in a deposition that the posts were sent so platforms could take them down. “In some cases when we shared information they would provide a response to us that they had taken them down. I would not say it was a 100 percent success rate. If I had to characterize it, I would say it was like a 50 percent success rate. But that’s just from my recollection,” he said.
The FBI has defended its officials’ interactions with Big Tech, saying the agency “provides critical information to the private sector in an effort to allow them to protect themselves and their customers.”
Hunter Biden Computer
Mr. Chan was also one of the officials who warned the Big Tech firms ahead of the 2020 election about a possible “hack-and-dump” operation from the Russians.
“On information and belief, the FBI’s reference to a ‘dump’ of information was a specific reference to the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was already in the FBI’s possession,” a federal lawsuit on the matter stated.
The computer from Mr. Biden was verified by the FBI as legitimate in 2019, according to a government whistleblower.
But during meetings with Twitter and Facebook shortly after the first news report on the computer the following year, the FBI refused to comment on the matter, according to social media personnel and FBI officials.
Mr. Chan said in his deposition that the matter did not come up in future meetings in which he took part, but emails from Facebook obtained by the House Judiciary Committee undercut that claim.
“I asked SSA Chan whether there was any update or change since the discussion on 14 October 2020 as to whether the FBI saw any evidence suggesting foreign sponsorship or direction of the leak of information related to Hunter Biden as published in the New York Post story on 14 October,” a Facebook employee wrote. “SSA Chan advised that he was up to speed on the current state of the matter within the FBI and that there was no current evidence to suggest any foreign connection or direction of the leak.”
In the subpoena cover letter, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Chan: “The Committee has uncovered evidence that appears to contradict several statements in your deposition in Missouri v. Biden, particularly as they relate to your communications with social media platforms.”
From The Epoch Times