MRC Free Speech America update summary: On Aug. 20, 2025, “U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard announced major staff reductions and reforms designed to save taxpayer money and end the political weaponization of the Biden-created Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC). In addition to cutting 40% of the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) staff, Gabbard’s initiative will significantly downsize FMIC - and eliminate its most-abused authorities, which were weaponized against conservatives’ free speech and used to attack the 2024 reelection bid of President Donald Trump.”
The following article is a supplement to the MRC Report: The Biden Administration Waged War on Free Speech with 57 Censorship Initiatives.
Initiative #31
The Industry Working Groups
Type of Censorship: Direct Action
Agencies Involved:
- Department of Homeland Security
- Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
- Office of Intelligence Analysis (I&A)
- Department of Justice
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- National Security Division (NSD)
- Department of the Treasury
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)
- Mission Integration Directorate
- National Intelligence Council (NIC)
- Mission Integration Directorate
Summary:
The national intelligence agencies of the government participated in a coordinated effort to censor the Biden family laptop scandal. This necessitated a cover-up during the Biden administration.
Together, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency (CISA) and Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A); the Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Security Division (NSD) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)’s National Intelligence Council (NIC) formed “industry working groups” with Big Tech platforms. Among the Big Tech firms pressured into attending the weekly meetings were Facebook (later Meta), Google, Microsoft and Twitter (now X). At these meetings, government officials would routinely pressure the Big Tech platforms to censor American speech.
In 2019, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had authenticated the contents of laptops given to authorities by computer repairman John Paul Mac Isaac. The laptops, which had been abandoned by then-future President Joe Biden’s son and advisor Hunter Biden, detailed the then-vice president’s extensive involvement in his son’s corrupt foreign business dealings.
Under Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan, the FBI used “industry working groups” to “prebunk” the story. Chan, on behalf of the FBI, advised the Big Tech platforms that there would potentially be “Russian disinformation” about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings published shortly before the election, and pressured the Big Tech platforms to censor such reporting.
Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency (CISA) and Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A); the Department of Justice’s National Security Division (NSD) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)’s National Intelligence Council were all in these meetings.
After New York Post reporters learned of the Biden laptops and published a story on their contents, Facebook and Twitter began aggressively censoring the report(s), even blocking links to the story. Facebook officials approached the FBI and asked if the story was accurate. An FBI official attempted to tell Facebook’s executives the truth, but was prevented by Chan.
The FBI and other agencies involved in the pre-bunking continued to keep the story a secret into the Biden administration, continuing the cover-up. They also continued holding the industry working group meetings to further direct censorship. Even as Mac Isaac took Biden to court, arguing his business was being sabotaged based on false claims that the laptop was a hoax, none of the agencies formally acknowledged the incident. This deceptive silence continued even after Twitter Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth admitted what happened in a formal declaration to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Instead, the whistle was blown by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Supervisory Agent Gary Shapley. Shapley, according to The Federalist, confirmed that the Department of Justice “knew” the contents of laptops given to authorities by Mac Isaac were “not Russian disinformation.” Further still, according to National Review, Shapley also testified to Congress that the FBI interfered in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s investigation of the Bidens.
In what the House Oversight Committee later determined was a “threatening action” against other potential whistleblowers, the IRS attempted to demote Shapley as a consequence of his decision to tell congressional investigators about the Biden laptop cover-up.
Key Individuals:
- Nicole Argentieri, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division
- Elvis Chan, FBI Supervisory Special Agent
- John Cohen, Acting Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence & Analysis
- John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division
- Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence
- Chris Krebs, CISA Director
- Joseph Maher, Acting Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence & Analysis
- John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence
- Brian Scully, CISA Chief of the Mis, Dis & Malinformation Team / NSC Advisor
