The incoming Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee said that he is hoping to have Elon Musk testify as part of a probe into President Biden and his son Hunter.
“I have reached out to Elon Musk through backchannels to tell him that we would love for him to come before the committee . . . I’m pretty confident he’s going to provide more information, but he is welcome to come before our committee. We will roll out the red carpet for Elon Musk,” Kentucky Republican James Comer told the New York Post in an article published Saturday morning.
Republicans, who secured a narrow majority in last month’s midterms, are expected to use committee control to dig into any connections between the president and his son’s business dealings; they also want to learn more about social-media censorship including the Post’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Comer’s request is markedly warmer than his earlier letter sent to Musk in late October, which asked him to provide corporate information about the 2020 presidential election.
“Following your recent acquisition of Twitter and pledge to make the social media platform a place ‘where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner,’ we hope you will correct this error made by the company’s former leadership and provide Americans with transparency. To that end, we request Twitter provide information regarding its previous leaders’ decision to limit information that may have affected the 2020 election,” Comer wrote on October 28.
In the interview with the Post, Comer further elaborated that the Oversight Committee would be subpoenaing other former Twitter executives, including high-level former employees Jim Baker, Vijaya Gadde, and Yoel Roth.
This week, Baker was fired as Twitter’s general counsel when it was revealed that he had vetted the first installment of the “Twitter Files,” released by journalist Matt Taibbi, without Musk’s knowledge.
“Your testimony will provide the Committee critical context regarding the Twitter censorship team’s decision to prohibit users from sharing information about a presidential candidate,” Comer reportedly wrote in a letter addressed to Baker.
In a more recent document dump by Bari Weiss Thursday night, internal communications indicated that both Gadde and Roth had extensive powers to suppress conservative and anti-lockdown voices on Twitter.