Musk fires top Twitter lawyer over Hunter Biden claims

‘In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information he was exiled from Twitter’

ELON MUSK has fired James Baker, one of Twitter’s most senior lawyers, for allegedly hiding information about the decision to block a news story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

“In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today,” said Mr Musk.

Mr Musk’s comments appeared to be in reference to Mr Baker’s involvement with what he calls the Twitter Files.

These are communications surrounding the decision to block Twitter users’ access to a New York Post story about emails found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, son of the then Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The story could have affected Mr Biden’s chances of being elected president as it suggested he was personally involved in corrupt business dealings in Ukraine. Now president, Mr Biden has not publicly addressed the allegations.

A freelance journalist working closely with Twitter’s chief executive, Bari Weiss, claimed that Mr Baker, a former FBI lawyer, not only vetted files being handed to the press, but was involved in the 2020 decision to block the news article from being shared.

When asked on Twitter if Mr Baker had been asked to explain himself, Mr Musk replied: “Yes. His explanation was … unconvincing.”

Twitter initially claimed it blocked access to the New York Post story under its “hacked materials” policy.

However, email snippets published by freelance journalist Matt Taibbi, who is close to Mr Musk, suggested that some company executives were unsure if the story broke any of Twitter’s rules.

After acquiring Twitter for $44bn (£36bn) in October, Mr Musk has argued that the social network is taking a less restrictive approach to speech.

The Hunter Biden laptop scandal erupted days before the last US presidential election. Hunter had left his laptop at a repair shop where a worker looked at its hard drive and found emails showing he had introduced his father to a board member of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, the New York Post reported. This was the story that Twitter blocked.