Dr. Anthony Fauci and other White House officials must testify under oath in a lawsuit alleging the Biden administration colluded with Facebook and Twitter to suppress free speech regarding coronavirus, a federal court ordered on Friday.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry sued the Biden administration in May 2022, arguing that the White House – and especially Fauci as Chief Medical Advisor to the President – were colluding with big tech to suppress information about Hunter Biden’s laptop, Covid-19, and Covid-19 vaccines under the guise of combating what they call “misinformation”.
The case was filed in the Western District of Louisiana to Judge Terry Doughty, who was appointed by President Trump. Schmitt and Landry have aggressively pursued both the White House and the Big Tech giants, seeking a preliminary injunction.
The attorneys general sought the testimony of Fauci because of his high-profile position and his public comments rejecting the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, as well as his claims about the efficacy of mask wearing.
On October 21, Judge Doughty granted a request for discovery by Schmitt and Landry, ordering Fauci, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and others to sit under oath for up to seven hours each, answering potentially hundreds of questions about all internal communications in the Biden administration and the officials’ communications with Facebook and Twitter about COVID-19.
More from The New York Post:
A federal judge has ordered Dr. Anthony Fauci and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki to be deposed for a lawsuit that claims top officials in the Biden administration colluded with social media companies to censor debate about the COVID pandemic and The Post’s expose on the Hunter Biden laptop.
Fauci, Psaki and other other administration officials — including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy — must testify about their communications with the tech companies as part of the lawsuit brought in May by Republican attorneys general Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana.
The attorneys general sought the testimony of Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden, because of his high profile position and his public comments rejecting the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, as well as his claims about the efficacy of mask wearing.
“Plaintiffs urge that his comments on these important issues are relevant to the matter at hand and are further reasons why Dr. Fauci should be deposed,” US District Court Judge Terry Doughty wrote in his 28-page order issued on Friday.
“Plaintiffs assert that they should not be required to simply accept Dr. Fauci’s ‘self-serving blanket denials’ that were issued from someone other than himself at face value. The Court agrees,” Doughty, a judge in the Western District of Louisiana, wrote.
The judge added that Fauci “no doubt” engaged in communications with “high-ranking social media officials” and so far has not had to give any statements under oath.
Schmitt, who is running to represent Missouri in the US Senate, hailed Doughty’s decision.
“After finding documentation of a collusive relationship between the Biden Administration and social media companies to censor free speech, we immediately filed a motion to get these officials under oath,” he said in a statement.
“It is high time we shine a light on this censorship enterprise and force these officials to come clean to the American people, and this ruling will allow us to do just that. We’ll keep pressing for the truth,” he said.
