Taibbi Hits Back After Rep. Ted Lieu Calls Him A Liar

Journalist Matt Taibbi hit back at Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), who called him a liar for suggesting that the FBI has been “analyzing and mass-flagging social media posts” instead of “chasing child sex predators or terrorists.”

Dear @mtaibbi: I’m on the House Judiciary Committee that has oversight over the @FBI and you are lying. The FBI has lots of agents chasing child sex predators and terrorists. Please stop undermining and lying about federal law enforcement. https://t.co/nUcrwRyjRU

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 17, 2022

Taibbi responded to Lieu, suggesting that he could shed light on actual figures:

“Being on that committee,” Taibbi replied, referring to the House Judiciary Committee Lieu brought up, “you should know:

– How much has been spent, and how many DHS/DOJ employees have been assigned, to monitoring and flagging social media? – Why is the FBI asking for “location information” about ordinary Americans and media outlets like @RSBNetwork ?

Taibbi also asked Lieu “What “law enforcement” objective is served by asking for Billy Baldwin’s location information?” and why the FBI and DHS are in the business of analyzing and flagging social media content at all.

– What “law enforcement” objective is served by asking for Billy Baldwin’s location information?
– Why is the FBI/DHS in the business of analyzing and flagging social media content at all? When were these programs created and who approved them? pic.twitter.com/vEigT4ksKV

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 17, 2022

Your turn Ted…

*  *  *

Following the latest ‘TWITTER FILES‘ drop, which revealed that “Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary,” journalist Matt Taibbi commented that “Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists, the FBI has agents — lots of them — analyzing and mass-flagging social media posts.”

Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists, the FBI has agents — lots of them — analyzing and mass-flagging social media posts. Not as part of any criminal investigation, but as a permanent, end-in-itself surveillance operation. People should not be okay with this.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022

In response, California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu lashed out – telling Taibbi: “I’m on the House Judiciary Committee that has oversight over the @FBI and you are lying,” adding “The FBI has lots of agents chasing child sex predators and terrorists. Please stop undermining and lying about federal law enforcement.”

To which researcher Tracy Beanz asked FBI whistleblower Steve Friend to chime in.

Oh? Hey @RealStevefriend !! Maybe you wanna hop in here and help him?

— Tracy Beanz (@tracybeanz) December 17, 2022

Friend, a former 12-year veteran of the FBI and a SWAT team member, notably came out in October to claim that the agency went into hyperdrive to track down and investigate January 6th cases to promote the appearance of right-wing domestic terrorism, at the expense of other investigations – such as child trafficking.

Friend was suspended and stripped of his gun and badge in September for refusing to participate in SWAT raids against January 6th subjects accused of misdemeanor offenses, according to the NY Post.

As Taibbi wrote in November of Friend;

He worked a child pornography detail before being transferred to the assignment that would upend his life: investigating J6. The FBI not only took Friend off vital work chasing child predators to pursue questionable investigations of people maybe connected with the Capitol riots (often in some misdemeanor fashion), they used dubious bureaucratic methods he felt put him in an impossible spot.

Essentially, the FBI made Friend a supervisory agent in cases actually being run by the Washington field office, a trick replicated across the country that made domestic terrorism numbers appear to balloon overnight. Instead of one investigation run out of Washington, the Bureau now had hundreds of “terrorism” cases “opening” in every field office in the country. As a way to manipulate statistics, it was ingenious, but Friend could see it was also trouble.

As a member of a dying breed of agent raised to focus on making cases and securing convictions, Friend knew putting him nominally in charge of a case he wasn’t really running was a gift to any good defense attorney, should a J6 case ever get to trial.

“They’re gonna see my name as being the case agent, yet not a single document has my name as doing any work,” Friend says. “Now a defense lawyer can say, ‘Hey, the case agent for this case didn’t perform any work.’ Labeling the case this way would be a big hit to our prosecution.”

And so, in response to Lieu’s tweet, Friend wrote: “Hey @tedlieu, I’ll be happy to explain how I was moved from investigating child exploitation and human trafficking and told to focus on January 6. I was told child pornographers should be considered a “local matter.””

Absolutely @tracybeanz. Hey @tedlieu, I’ll be happy to explain how I was moved from investigating child exploitation and human trafficking and told to focus on January 6. I was told child pornographers should be considered a “local matter.” https://t.co/iE7KJ9fZt7

— @RealStevefriend (@RealStevefriend) December 17, 2022

So far crickets from Lieu, though he’s quite the prolific Tweeter so maybe Friend will get a response.

The FBI, meanwhile, responded to Taibbi’s “The Twitter Files” thread, in which he said that between January 2020 and November 2022, former Twitter Senior Director of Trust & Safety, Yoel Roth, had exchanged over 150 emails with the agency.

“The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities,” the FBI said in a statement. “Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them.”