A federal judge in Louisiana ruled the Biden administration has 21 days to turn over relevant correspondence from Dr. Anthony Fauci and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to social media platforms about misinformation and alleged censorship.
Judge Terry Doughty’s ruling came as part of a lawsuit Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed in May. In the filing, Landry and Schmitt —who is running for Senate — alleged the Biden administration suppressed free speech on topics related to the COVID-19 lab leak theory, lockdown, and elections, among other issues.
The Department of Justice had objected to handing over email correspondence citing executive privilege and presidential communications privilege. But Doughty denied these objections, stating, “This Court believes Plaintiffs are entitled to external communications by Jean-Pierre and Dr. Fauci in their capacities as White House Press Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor to the President to third-party social media platforms.”
In the initial suit, Landry and Schmitt argued the administration “threatened and cajoled social-media platforms for years to censor viewpoints and speakers disfavored by the Left.”
The pair continued, stating that “senior government officials in the Executive Branch have moved into a phase of open collusion with social-media platforms under the Orwellian guise of halting so-called ‘disinformation,’ ‘misinformation’ and ‘malinformation.'”
The lawsuit alleges that the actions resulted in”an unprecedented rise of censorship and suppression of free speech — including core political speech — on social media platforms.”
They also claimed the censorship wasn’t only limited to “fringe views, but perfectly legitimate, responsible viewpoints and speakers have been unlawfully and unconstitutionally threatened in the modern public square.”
