Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz on Wednesday demanded that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas turn over key documents that could shed light on the department's ties to major tech companies and alleged censorship of online information surrounding the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
In the letter, Gaetz alleged that Mayorkas' department engaged in a “pattern of coercion and collusion” with major tech companies and suggested that the Department of Homeland Security may have worked together to “unconstitutionally” censor the former president through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Gaetz demanded that DHS turn over all documents and communications that may have been stored on social media platforms between DHS employees and federal and state employees between July 13 and July 31 that refer to the assassination attempt on President Trump. (Related article: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns amid ongoing investigation into Trump assassination attempt)
“The Department of Homeland Security's two major scandals currently converge on one focal point: censorship by major tech companies and the digital 'erasure' of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump,” Gaetz said in the letter.
CISA is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security that worked with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) and the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) to monitor, flag, and censor online comments made by President Trump and other Republicans. report From the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government.
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 30: Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, arrives at the House Republican Caucus meeting in Washington, DC on September 30, 2023. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
On July 13, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump from a rooftop just 130 yards from the rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Prior to the rally, Crooks It's been found It was reported by a witness, flagged by the Secret Service and identified by a local counter sniper about 100 minutes before the Republican candidate took the podium.
“The Director of the United States Secret Service (USSS) recently offered to resign over the agency's failure to respond appropriately to Donald Trump, who on July 13, 2024 was the target of the most serious assassination attempt on an American politician in a generation,” the letter read. “On July 29, 2024, an anonymous USSS anti-shooter emailed your Department staff to complain that the USSS has not been cleansed and that the resignation of one senior official is insufficient to address serious structural concerns.” 'They lied to us': Mike Lee questions why Secret Service allowed Trump on stage after shooter was identified
After the assassination attempt, some Internet users began noticing what Gates called “irregularities” in autocomplete search results. suggestionGTaxation Searches for keywords like “President Donald” and “assassination attempt” yielded no Trump-related results.
Elon Musk on Monday claimed that Google and other major tech platforms are meddling in the upcoming November election by altering autocomplete search results for President Trump on their platforms.
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