We saw him slip out of Donald Trump’s office on one of the lingering days before he left the White House. Even so, is the real Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Twitter, Tik-Toc, and along with about 83 other companies even real?
He has his redeeming qualities. After all, he joined the Giving Pledge along with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and 200 additional millionaires and billionaires, according to The Business Insider:
‘[They] have vowed to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. He plans to sell 99% of his Facebook shares during his lifetime.’
The House Select Committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 requested:
‘Preservation requests 35 social media and telecommunication companies to preserve phone records, among other types of records, in the event the committee needs them. Much more information.’
The statement continued:
‘and the Select Committee will use whatever tools are at our disposal to get the records we’re seeking.’
The committee already has its subpoena power to seek the records but so far, has not done so used. This time, the committee was referring to the 15 social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube who have not fully complied with the request. These companies have already been asked to hand over a wide variety of records that related to their company policies on: “extremism, misinformation, and foreign influence.”
The next day, Pelosi handed the social media companies a not-so-subtle threat. She off a warning statement to 15 of them.
The Trump White House. will likely give the panel a fight over executive privilege. That fight could come not just from former President Donald Trump himself, but from a Biden White House concerned about the precedent that could be set over Congressional access to material from the Executive Branch.
Thus far, the Committee has already received “thousands of pages of. records” and plans to begin reviewing them, according to Reuters.
If for some reason any of the companies were unable to comply with the request, they needed to notify the committee. A spokesperson for the select panel released a statement Thursday night that read:
‘[W]ith several hours to go before today’s deadline, the Select Committee has received thousands of pages of documents in response to our first set of requests and our investigative team is actively engaged to keep that flow of information going.’
‘These records supplement the material we’ve received from other House Committees related to their earlier probes of January 6th. The Select Committee is also aware that the National Archives has undertaken the process required by law for review of presidential records.’
They stressed that just naming an individual on the list did not mean that individual or company had committed wrongdoings. It read:
‘The document identifies individuals who may have relevant information to aid the factfinding of the Select Committee.”
A spokesperson for the company said:
“We have received the Select Committee’s letter and are committed to working with Congress on this. The events of January 6 were unprecedented and tragic, and Google and YouTube strongly condemn them. We’re committed to protecting our platforms from abuse, including by rigorously enforcing our policies for content related to the events of January 6.’
A Committee Spokesman Tim Mulvey said in a statement to CNN:
‘The Select Committee is investigating the violent attack on the Capitol and attempt to overturn the results of last year’s election. We’ve asked companies not to destroy records that may help answer questions for the American people.
‘The committee’s efforts won’t be deterred by those who want to whitewash or cover up the events of January 6th, or obstruct our investigation.’
‘I think it’s really unlikely that it would rise to the level of an obstruction of justice or obstruction of an investigation, just to send a letter like this,” he said referring to McCarthy’s statement about the committee’s request to preserve records. “I think if it escalated or they did something outside of the normal channel maybe, but I don’t see this rising to the level of that.’
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
