(NewsNation) — Elon Musk fired Twitter’s deputy general counsel, Jim Baker, the tech billionaire announced on social media Tuesday.
Twitter’s new owner claimed he let Baker go because of his “possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue.”
“He was exited from Twitter today,” Musk wrote in a tweet responding to journalist Matt Taibbi.
Matt published a thread to Twitter over the weekend alleging that Twitter suppressed a NY Post story about the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and his laptop. The threat also revealed alleged communication between Twitter executives and both the Trump and Biden campaigns during the 2020 presidential election. Both camps, Taibbi wrote, often reached out to Twitter to block stories or tweets they thought were inaccurate or misinformation, though he contends the content moderation system was biased in favor of liberal-leaning requests.
Taibbi had been provided access to internal documents surrounding Twitter’s alleged communication with politicians to censor information, Axios reported. The journalist has said he had to agree to “certain conditions” to get the documents but did not say exactly what those were.
Baker, Taibbi claimed, vetted the information given to Taibbi for the “Twitter Files” without the knowledge of Twitter’s “new management,” and delayed giving the documents to him.
When asked about this, Musk said, Baker’s explanation was “… unconvincing.”
The ousted lawyer once worked as general counsel for the FBI, and was part of the team investigating Donald Trump’s campaign and its potential ties to Russia. For that reason, many conservative media figures and a handful of Republicans in Congress drew the conclusion that the FBI had a more direct hand in Twitter’s original decision to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story.
There has been no concrete evidence to prove that’s the case, though.
Republican Rep. James Comer, (R-Kentucky), who is likely the next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to Baker Tuesday night in response to his firing and Musk’s allegations.
To “assess big tech’s control of free discourse and information,” Comer asked Baker to come testify before the Oversight Committee.
So far, Baker has not responded to his firing or the invitation from Congress.
There have been myriad layoffs and resignations at Twitter since Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter on Oct. 27. Musk said last month, though, that he is done making cuts and is looking for people for engineering or sales roles.