JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – On Monday, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry served discovery requests on top Biden Administration Officials and Tuesday served third-party subpoenas on social media giants Twitter, Meta, Youtube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The discovery requests and subpoenas come as part of Missouri’s and Louisiana’s lawsuit against the Biden Administration for allegedly colluding with social media giants to censor and suppress freedom of speech. Earlier this month, a federal court granted Missouri’s and Louisiana’s request for expedited discovery and documents, and Monday Missouri and Louisiana served those discovery requests.
“In May, Missouri and Louisiana filed a landmark lawsuit against top-ranking Biden Administration officials for allegedly colluding with social media giants to suppress free speech on topics like COVID-19 and election security,” said Attorney General Schmitt. “Earlier this month, a federal court granted our motion for expedited discovery, allowing us to collect important documents from Biden Administration officials. Yesterday, we served discovery requests and today served third-party subpoenas to do exactly that. We will fight to get to the bottom of this alleged collusion and expose the suppression of freedom of speech by social media giants at the behest of top-ranking government officials.”
Discovery requests were served asking for information and documents from Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Jen Easterly and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and Nina Jankowicz.
Third-party subpoenas were also served to Twitter, Youtube, Meta, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
One set of discovery contains interrogatories and requests for documents from Defendant Dr. Fauci and NIAID on certain items like: (1) Identify all Communications with any Social-Media Platform relating to Content Modulation and/or Misinformation, (2) Identify all meetings with any Social-Media Platform relating to Content Modulation and/or Misinformation, (3) Identify all Communications with Mark Zuckerberg from January 1, 2020 to the present, including but not limited to those referenced in Paragraphs 142- 145 of the Complaint, (4) Identify all Communications with any Social-Media Platform that relate to the Great Barrington Declaration, the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, the original signers of the Great Barrington Declaration, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Scott Atlas, Alex Berenson, Dr. Peter Daszak, Dr. Shi Zhengli, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, EcoHealth Alliance, and/or any member of the so-called “Disinformation Dozen,” and more.
Defendant White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who was sued in her personal and official capacity, was served with interrogatories that requests for documents related to items like: (1) Identify every officer, official, employee, staff member, personnel, contractor, or any other person associated with the White House Communications Team who has communicated or is communicating with any Social-Media Platform relating to Content Modulation and/or Misinformation, (2) Identify all Communications with any Social-Media Platform relating to Content Modulation and/or Misinformation, (3) Identify all person(s) who “engage[s] regularly with all social media platforms about steps that can be taken” to address Misinformation on social media, which engagement “has continued, and … will continue,” as stated at the April 25, 2022 White House press briefing, including all Communications with any Social-Media Platform involved in such engagement, and more.
Defendant Nina Jankowicz was served with interrogatories and requests for documents relating to: (1) Identify all Communications with any Social-Media Platform relating to Content Modulation and/or Misinformation, (2) Identify the nature, purpose, participants, topics to be discussed, and topics actually discussed at the meeting between DHS personnel and Twitter executives Nick Pickles and Yoel Roth scheduled on or around April 28, 2022, and more.
Defendants are required to respond to discovery requests within 30 days.
The discovery request for Dr. Fauci and the NIAID can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—fauci.pdf?sfvrsn=d085337_2 and here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—niaid.pdf?sfvrsn=9240693c_2
The discovery request for Jen Easterly and the CISA can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—easterly.pdf?sfvrsn=9d189e6c_2 and here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—cisa.pdf?sfvrsn=253b6058_2
The discovery request for the CDC can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—cdc.pdf?sfvrsn=727a66b6_2
The discovery request for DHS can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—dhs.pdf?sfvrsn=bb5634ec_2
The discovery request for HHS can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—hhs.pdf?sfvrsn=167efef8_2
The discovery request for White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—kjp.pdf?sfvrsn=a2d213b8_2
The discovery request for Nina Jankowicz can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—jankowicz.pdf?sfvrsn=16b1cd61_2
The discovery request for Surgeon General Vivek Murthy can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/discovery—murthy.pdf?sfvrsn=d6090546_2
The subpoena sent to Meta can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/subpoena—meta.pdf?sfvrsn=2f74659d_2
The subpoena sent to Youtube can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/subpoena—youtube.pdf?sfvrsn=95254dec_2
The subpoena to Twitter can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/subpoena—twitter.pdf?sfvrsn=355ddb45_2
The subpoena sent to Instagram can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/subpoena—instagram.pdf?sfvrsn=f4ecbc52_2
The subpoena sent to LinkedIn can be found here: https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/discovery-motions/subpoena—linkedin.pdf?sfvrsn=a61e8959_2