Republican Reps. James Comer of Kentucky (left) and Jim Jordan of Ohio confer at a House Oversight Committee hearing on July 22. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Casey Harper is a senior reporter for the Washington, D.C., bureau of The Center Square.
CENTER SQUARE—U.S. House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer launched an investigation Wednesday into allegations that Google and Meta, parent company of Facebook, censored or misrepresented content about President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Comer, R-Ky., sent letters to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai Wednesday over the alleged censorship, which grabbed national attention after the near-fatal assassination attempt against Trump in Butler County, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
How Google and Facebook handled questions and searches about the assassination attempt against Trump sparked criticism.
“Specifically, Meta’s AI assistant claimed, ‘the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was a ‘fictional’ event,’ even as the chatbot ‘had plenty to say about Democratic rival Kamala Harris’ run for the White House,” Comer wrote, citing a New York Post article. “When asked if the assassination on President Trump was fictional, Meta’s bot responded that there ‘was no real assassination attempt on Donald Trump. I strive to provide accurate and reliable information, but sometimes mistakes can occur.’ The bot further added, ‘[t]o confirm, there has been no credible report or evidence of a successful or attempted assassination of Donald Trump.’”
Facebook’s team also admitted that it censored the photo of a bloody Trump holding his fist in the air just after the shooting, a photo that went viral online and became a rallying point for his campaign.
“This was an error,” Facebook communications director Dani Levi wrote on X about the photo. “This fact-check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the Secret Service agents smiling, and in some cases, our systems incorrectly applied that fact-check to the real photo. This has been fixed, and we apologize for the mistake.”
“Google users report that autocompleted search prompts related to the assassination attempt of President Trump produced results for failed assassination attempts of former presidents, including Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan—or even assassinations of historical figures such as Archduke Franz Ferdinand—but omitted from the list of automatically generated search suggestions the recent attempt on President Trump’s life,” Comer wrote.
Google told CBS MoneyWatch that the search issues were technical “anomalies” that were unintentional and could affect anyone. Comer’s investigation is calling for documents and answers on how Google’s search and autocomplete works. Google staff briefed the committee earlier this month.
“In response to preliminary staff inquiries, Google contends that the autocomplete results omitted the Trump assassination attempt due to a safety protocol concerning predicted assassination attempts of current political leaders, and Google had not yet updated the autocomplete feature to reflect that an assassination attempt of President Trump had occurred,” Comer wrote.
In his letter to Meta’s Zuckerberg, Comer pointed out that the executive branch regulates the tech companies that can have bias in determining who runs the executive branch.
“The Committee has long been concerned with how large technology companies leverage their businesses to influence public opinion—especially the design and use of content-moderation policies within private sector social media companies—and how company policies are shaped and influenced by Executive Branch officials,” Comer wrote in his letter to Zuckerberg.
After the issues last month, Trump blasted both companies online, saying “here we go again” and calling it “rigging the election,” an apparent reference to how social media companies at the urging of the FBI censored news stories about the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian disinformation, but the laptop later was found to be real.
Devon Archer, a former best friend and business associate of Hunter Biden in Ukraine, is expected to testify under oath to Congress this week that President Biden met with dozens of Hunter’s business associates while he was serving as vice president between 2009 and 2017.
Fox News Digital has confirmed that Archer has been subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee and could testify as early as Thursday, July 27. The expected testimony could cast further doubt on President Biden’s repeated claims that he had no knowledge of his son’s foreign business dealings or of having any influence on them.
Miranda Devine, a New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor, reported Monday that Archer, 48, is expected to tell the House Oversight Committee about meetings he witnessed attended by both Bidens — Hunter and Joe — either in person or via telephone. During the meetings, Hunter would specifically introduce his father to foreign business partners or prospective investors, Archer is expected to testify.
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Archer to speak as House Republicans continue to investigate whether the Bidens used the influence then-Vice President Biden had in the White House to elicit these deals and other alleged Biden family corruption. The committee told Fox News it believes the president communicated in some form with Hunter Biden’s business associates.
President Biden has snapped at reporters who have asked him about alleged corruption involving him and his son, Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“We are looking forward very much to hearing from Devon Archer about all the times he has witnessed Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s overseas business partners when he was vice president, including on speakerphone,” the committee said in a statement.
The committee invited Archer to testify as he was sentenced last year to one year in prison for his role in a $60 million bond fraud involving various clients. At least three previously planned dispositions were canceled by Archer for personal reasons.
“Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he knew nothing about his son’s business dealings,” committee chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement on Monday. “Evidence continues to be revealed that Joe Biden was very much involved in his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes and he likely benefited financially. This includes deals with a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch and a CCP-linked energy company that generated millions for the Bidens and undermined American interests.”
Comer added, “It certainly appears that Joe Biden and his family put themselves first and Americans last, but corporate media and the Justice Department continue to cover up for the Bidens. The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the facts to provide the transparency and accountability that the American people demand and deserve. We look forward to speaking soon with Devon Archer about Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s business affairs.”
Devine, also the author of “Laptop from Hell,” reported Archer is expected to testify on specific examples of the elder Biden getting involved in his son’s business deals, including an evening meeting in Dubai on Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, which ultimately saw Hunter Biden meeting with Ukrainian energy company Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky and calling his dad during their conversation. At the time, Burisma was paying Hunter $83,000 a month to serve as a director, Devine reported.
According to Devine, Archer, who was also a director, is expected to testify that the call between Joe, Hunter and Hunter’s business partners came after he and Hunter had dinner with the Burisma board at the Burj Al Arab Hotel. Archer and Hunter reportedly left the meeting and traveled to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach when Vadym Pozharskyi, a senior Burisma executive, called them and said Zlochevsky needed to urgently speak with Hunter. The two Ukrainians then reportedly joined Hunter and Archer at the Four Seasons, where Pozharskyi specifically asked Hunter, “Can you ring your dad?”
According to Devine, Archer is expected to testify that Hunter called his father, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time, and introduced the Ukrainians by their first names. Then the younger Biden emphasized that the Burisma executives “need our support.” Then-Vice President Biden acknowledged the Ukrainians, as he did in other calls with Hunter’s business partners, but kept the conversation brief, Archer is expected to testify.
President Biden gives remarks on AI in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on July 21, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Devine reported that committee members are likely to ask Archer about the context surrounding that meeting as three days after that conversation, on Dec. 9, 2015, then-Vice President Biden, who was former President Obama’s point man for Ukrainian issues, flew to Kyiv to address the Ukrainian parliament. At the time, Zlochevsky was being investigated by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin for corruption and, just two months later, Shokin seized four of Zlochevsky’s houses in Kyiv, two plots of land and a Rolls-Royce, Devine reported.
A month after the seizure, then-Vice President Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine unless Shokin was fired. Then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promptly fired Shokin.
Biden later bragged to the Council on Foreign Relations during an event in January 2018, saying, “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, he got fired.”
Members of the House Oversight Committee are expected to ask Archer about the timing of the firing as Shokin was also investigating Burisma at the time.
The New York Post previously reported an email sent on Nov. 2, 2015 that shows Pozharskyi was ratcheting up pressure on Hunter and Archer to use their influence to “close down” Shokin’s investigation into Burisma.
President Biden has repeatedly defended the firing as pointing back to Poroshenko, who said Shokin was corrupt and was slow walking efforts to clear corruption in the prosecutor’s office. Biden and the U.S. were also not the only entities advocating for Shokin to be removed. According to a Congressional Research Service report published in Jan. 2017, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde threatened to withhold $40 billion unless Ukraine undertook “a substantial new effort” to clear corruption in the government. The CRS report said Shokin submitted his resignation in February 2016 and was subsequently removed.
Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma before he resigned in Feb. 2016. (GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)
However, Just last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released an FBI document describing an allegation that Zlochevsky told an FBI informant he paid a $10 million bribe to Joe and Hunter Biden in 2016 “to ensure Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired.” The FBI document, known as an FD-1023, shows Zlochevsky calling Joe Biden “the big guy.” Archer is expected to testify the “big guy” was a title other people in Biden’s circle used to refer to the elder Biden.
According to Devine, Hunter Biden’s former business partner in Los Angeles, Tony Bobulinski, also met with Hunter and Joe. In an email sent to Hunter, Bobulinski refers to then-Vice President Biden as “the big guy.”
Archer also is expected to tell the committee about other instances — as many as two dozen times in Archer’s presence — where Hunter called his father and put him on speaker to impress prospective investors, Devine reported.
His testimony is expected to include information about dinners Hunter organized, so his father could meet his foreign business partners, Devine wrote. A Fox News Digital review found that Biden personally met with several of Hunter’s business associates from the U.S., Mexico, Ukraine, China and Kazakhstan over the course of his vice presidency. Joe Biden met with two of Hunter’s since-dissolved investment fund partners, former Colombia President Andrés Pastrana Arango and Eric Schwerin, at the Naval Observatory — the official residence of the vice president — on March 2, 2012, the New York Post reported.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, right, hosted then-Vice President Joe Biden for official talks in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 16, 2017. (Vitaliy Holovin/Corbis via Getty images)
According to emails reviewed by Fox News Digital, the elder Biden also met with two of Hunter’s Mexican business associates, Miguel Aleman Velasco and Miguel Aleman Magnani, when they visited the West Wing on Feb. 26, 2014. Joe and Hunter Biden also gave Velasco and Magnani a tour of the White House Brady Press Briefing room.
Emails reviewed by Fox News Digital, also showed Hunter arranged a video conference with his father and Carlos Slim, a Mexican billionaire with whom Hunter was seeking to do business with at the time, on Oct. 30, 2015.
Joe, Hunter, and Hunter’s business partner Jeff Cooper hosted another meeting at the Naval Observatory, located at Number One Observatory Circle in Washington D.C., for Slim, Velasco and Magnani on Nov. 19, 2015. At the time, Hunter and Cooper were interested in investing in a Mexican energy company with the business executives, the Daily Mail reported.
In February 2016, Hunter and Cooper flew on Air Force 2 to Mexico City, where Hunter wrote an email to Magnani that he would be personally attending a meeting between Joe and then-Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. In the same email, Hunter said Magnani had not spoken to him “for months” despite Hunter delivering “on every single thing you’ve ever asked,” which included bringing guests to meet his father.
“I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the F’ing White House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration and then you go completely silent,” Hunter wrote in the email. “I don’t know what it is that I did but I’d like to know why I’ve delivered on every single thing you’ve ever asked – and you make me feel like I’ve done something to offend you.”
Hunter Biden’s business associates thanked him for introducing them to his father Vice President Joe Biden in emails found on the younger Biden’s laptop. (Kris Connor/WireImage)
Joe Biden also attended a dinner with Hunter’s business associates from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Russia at the Georgetown restaurant Café Milano in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2015, emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop show. One such email from Hunter to Archer shared a guest list for the dinner, which included Burisma’s Pozharskyi, late Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and his wife, Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina, who was in business with Hunter’s Rosemont firm. It is not clear if these individuals ultimately attended the dinner.
The day after the 2015 meeting, Pozharskyi emailed Hunter thanking him for introducing him to his father.
Devine reported that Archer is expected to answer questions from the committee about these Café Milano meetings.
A close associate of Archer’s said he believes it is his “civic duty” to testify before the committee, Devine reported.
According to Devine, the associate said Archer has “nothing to hide, no revenge to enact nor anyone to protect other than his family and he feels he has been handcuffed by the absurdly bogus [fraud] case into remaining silent. In a forum where he has immunity he can at least start to speak truth.”
Fox News’ Gillian Turner, Chad Pergram and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
The House Oversight Committee on Friday penned a letter to Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards requesting seven documents or pieces of information be handed over by next week.
The letter, authored by Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), noted the series of recent undercover sting videos that purport to show the abortion provider engaging in the sale of aborted fetal parts.
“Recently released videos implicate Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates in potentially unlawful transactions involving fetal tissue,” the letter said. “In the videos, Planned Parenthood representatives discuss the demand for certain body parts, the manner in which patient consent is solicited, pricing considerations, and the methods by which doctors manipulate procedures to ensure that tissues remain intact.”
It added, “The disturbing content of these videos raises questions as to whether federal funds are being used to finance the potentially illegal conduct described therein.”
The committee requested Richards provide seven items to Congress by August 28. Most of the requested information pertains to Planned Parenthood’s use of federal funding. Item five requested that the abortion-provider provide a list of the 50 highest-paid employees. Item six requested a list of the “independently incorporated affiliates” that the organization supports, in addition to contact information. The last requested piece of information requires Planned Parenthood to note “what procedures, services, or other medical treatments are available only or exclusively at a Planned Parenthood affiliate or health center that are covered by either a state’s Medicaid program or a health plan sold via a state exchange or HealthCare.gov under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” .. “Do not include services or procedures that could otherwise be provided by a private health care provider,”the letter added.
The House Oversight Committee also sent a similar letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burewell. “According to its 2013-14 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood received more than $500 million in government funding in the last fiscal last year alone, accounting for more than 40 percent of the organization’s total revenue,”it said. “The Department of Health and Human Services provided a significant portion of the federal funds that Planned Parenthood received. It is not clear whether Planned Parenthood used any federal funds to support transactions involving fetal tissue.”
The letter requested information about which agencies within HHS provide funding or support to Planned Parenthood, the total amount of federal funding given to the abortion-provider since 2010, which restrictions are used when applying the funding and a list of services exclusively offered at Planned Parenthood.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Elijah Cummings and chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa convene a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 16, 2014. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
Oversight committee to meet to consider contempt for Lois Lerner
3:23 PM 04/03/2014
Rep. Darrell Issa is convening a meeting of the House Oversight Committee to consider contempt charges against Lois Lerner.
The “business meeting” will be held on April 10, 2014 at 9 a.m. in the Rayburn Office Building.
“Ms. Lerner’s involvement in wrongdoing and refusal to meet her legal obligations has left the committee with no alternative but to consider a contempt finding,” Issa said in a statement.
While the last full Oversight hearing resulted in a headline-making back-and-forth between Issa and Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, the last important Oversight Committee business meeting resulted in the finding that Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights.
Committee business meetings are open to and attended by committee members from both parties
The IRS scandal has served as a worrisome affirmation of some of the worst suspicions citizens have had of their government. Though it is no longer taught in schools, many of us grew up learning of American exceptionalism- that our system of government, while not perfect, protected citizens from a government that was intolerant of dissent.
Now, we maintain a government that spies on the people, lies to the people and targets political dissent.
The IRS scandal serves as a classic illustration as to how this administration handles scandal. When cornered, the Obama Administration never admits wrongdoing, but quite often, doubles-down.
When confronted with evidence of wrongdoing, the Obama Administration did not apologize and waiver; they offered up the Cincinnati office workers as “rogue agents” and shrugged off the scandal.
Now, this very same IRS that spent years targeting Tea Party and conservative groups is now looking to codify and legitimize this kind of harassment by instituting new rules and regulations within the IRS that would allow them to squelch nonprofits.
IRS official Lois Lerner has been called to testify before Congress, but Lerner has already begun to drag her feet and promise to testify only in exchange for immunity.
Lerner was called to testify last May, but before invoking her Fifth Amendment right to refrain from testifying, Lerner gave a statement denying her guilt. The House Oversight Committee voted 22-17 in favor of acknowledging that Lerner, by reading her statement, had waived her right to Fifth Amendment protections and now, Lerner is scheduled to be called before the Committee on March 5th.
Lerner is promising testimony only in exchange for immunity from prosecution; however, such legal maneuverings leaves one wondering, “What would she need immunity from if, according to President Obama, there isn’t a ‘smidgen’ of corruption in the IRS scandal?”
President Obama has repeatedly shrugged off allegations of corruption, even in the face of empirical evidence to the contrary. Sitting down with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly earlier this month, Obama claimed that the IRS scandal was a fake scandal, spurred on by sensationalized, rightwing reporting and claimed that there was not even a “smidgen” of corruption to be found.
If that’s the case, Lerner would not need immunity.
The IRS scandal is about so much more than mere harassment of political groups; it signifies a shift from a government that is willing to slightly bend the rules to a government run by people willing to outright break the rules and lie to cover them up.
TPNN’s Greg Campbell contributed to this article.
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About Todd CefarattiA graduate of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of California Irvine (UCI) and (HBS) Harvard Business School Executive Program. Todd Cefaratti holds degrees in economics, marketing and digital marketing. Todd is one of the top internet marketing experts in his field. Todd is also the founder of the nonprofit organization TheTeaParty.net which began in 2009 at the height of the Tea Party movement and today is recognized as one of the top national Tea Party organizations in the movement. The organization is still growing at over a 1000 new patriots every day and going strong with over 600,000 loyal active members. Todd is also the CEO of a major marketing consulting and fundraising organization and the Tea Party News Network. In his spare time, Todd is active with his wife and two daughters in their Christian church and Christian school that both daughters attend.View all Todd Cefarrati’s Posts
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About Todd CefarattiA graduate of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of California Irvine (UCI) and (HBS) Harvard Business School Executive Program. Todd Cefaratti holds degrees in economics, marketing and digital marketing. Todd is one of the top internet marketing experts in his field. Todd is also the founder of the nonprofit organization TheTeaParty.net which began in 2009 at the height of the Tea Party movement and today is recognized as one of the top national Tea Party organizations in the movement. The organization is still growing at over a 1000 new patriots every day and going strong with over 600,000 loyal active members. Todd is also the CEO of a major marketing consulting and fundraising organization and the Tea Party News Network. In his spare time, Todd is active with his wife and two daughters in their Christian church and Christian school that both daughters attend.
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