The Department of Justice is asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to block depositions of important officials in the Biden administration.
Court documents obtained by Politico show that the department is asking the court to vacate an order allowing the depositions of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly and White House Digital Strategy Director Rob Flaherty.
Notably, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki were not included in the motion.
Earlier in the year, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry filed the lawsuit accusing prominent Biden officials of colluding with Big Tech companies to censor content in order to prevent the spread of so-called “misinformation.”
NewsBusters reported last week that the court ordered the deposition of Biden officials in the lawsuit that could have a lasting impact on free speech online.
The order from the court granting the deposition requests:
“Plaintiffs have proven that Dr. Fauci has personal knowledge about the issue concerning censorship across social media as it related to COVID-19 and ancillary issues of COVID-19. The Court has considered that Dr. Fauci is a high-ranking official, especially as he is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President. The Court sees the only potential burden imposed on Dr. Fauci as a result of him being deposed is that of his time.”
The lawsuit specifically cites original research from Media Research Center and its CensorTrack database in the complaint.
In April, MRC Free Speech America published its findings of 646 cases in CensorTrack of pro-Biden censorship between March 10, 2020, and March 10, 2022.
MRC also found that Big Tech’s censorship of New York Post stories covering the Hunter Biden laptop helped sway the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
