House Republicans have former top Twitter and FBI lawyer James Baker in their crosshairs as they ramp up investigations into his role in the social media giant’s suppression of The Post’s reporting about first son Hunter Biden — with legal action a distinct possibility.
“Stay tuned,” a spokesman for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said in an email to Fox News Digital when asked about possible steps the panel could take could take against Baker.
Republicans on the Judiciary and Oversight committees are gearing up to investigate President Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings in Ukraine and China, which were exposed by The Post’s reporting in October 2020.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who’s expected to chair the Oversight Committee beginning in January, sent letters to Baker; Vivaya Gadde, Twitter’s former head of legal; and Yoel Roth, the company’s former head of trust and safety; asking them to appear before the panel voluntarily.
Baker was canned this week when the so-called “Twitter Files” revealed that the onetime FBI general counsel was secretly vetting internal company documents before they could be examined by journalists selected by CEO Elon Musk, leading to a delay in the release of those materials.
Musk, in a tweet on Tuesday, confirmed that Baker had been “exited” from the company.
“Twitter CEO Elon Musk recently claimed that Twitter ’has interfered in elections.’ The American people deserve to know why Twitter took down the Hunter Biden laptop story even when your colleagues were questioning the rationale for suppression the story,” Comer wrote in his letter to Baker.
“Your testimony will provide the Committee critical context regarding the Twitter censorship team’s decision to prohibit users from sharing information about a presidential candidate,” it continued.
Similar letters were sent to Roth and Gadde.
A Comer spokesperson told Fox News that the congressman intends to have Baker testify either voluntarily or under subpoena.
“We expect him to cooperate with the Oversight Committee’s request to appear at a public hearing,” the spokesperson said. “The committee is prepared to use any tools at its disposal to ensure his cooperation in order to provide transparency to the American people.”
The controversy over Twitter blocking The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story exploded last week when Musk released a report through journalist Matt Taibbi about the internal deliberations surrounding the decision.
It revealed that a small team of top executives determined that The Post’s report violated the company’s “hacked material” policy and kept their decision secret from then-CEO Jack Dorsey.
But that determination had been questioned by a number of Twitter insiders and became a subject of heated debate.
Taibbi’s report pointed out that Twitter sources had recalled a “general” warning from federal law enforcement officials about the potential for hacking by foreign agents in the summer of 2020 but no evidence surfaced about any government’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s laptop.
During the debate, Baker chimed in that it is “reasonable” to assume materials were hacked and that “caution is warranted.”
According to Taibbi’s report, Twitter then “took extraordinary steps to suppress” The Post’s report.
Baker, before he was hired by Twitter in June 2020, was general counsel for the FBI under former Director James Comey and played a critical role in the bureau’s investigation into claims of collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign officials and Russia.
“Twitter holds former FBI employees accountable for their actions,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who’s expected to head up the House Judiciary Committee, posted Wednesday on his Twitter account. “But the FBI doesn’t.”
