FBI involvement in Twitter censoring of Hunter Biden laptop story downplayed: ‘How far’ did ‘collusion’ go?

After Washington intelligence experts accepted the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation, one Republican senator is questioning whether the FBI also had a hand in suppressing the story on social media.

"You had the collusion between the FBI and social media in downplaying the laptop as Russian disinformation. And now people are saying, well, it was really true," Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told FOX Business’ Larry Kudlow Tuesday night. "And so people want to know how far did this go, that cooperation between the FBI and social media, how deep was that? Exactly who all was involved with it?"

Blackburn’s comments come just days after Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in October, bombshell revelations about what led the tech giant to suppress a New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop in the final weeks of the 2020 election.

Musk outsourced his findings to Substack journalist Matt Taibbi who published a lengthy thread detailing the platform’s censorship and the internal decisions that were made. At the time, Twitter Safety alleged that the articles were in violation of its "hacked materials policy."

ELON MUSK FIRES TWITTER LAWYER JIM BAKER, WHO WAS INVOLVED IN CENSORING HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP AND RUSSIA PROBE

"Answers need to be given," Blackburn said of the revelations. "People need to be held to account. I look forward to Republicans taking over the House in January and beginning to push some of that forward so we can then amplify that and push it in the Senate."

The senator’s comments on Tuesday echoed similar sentiments as her Republican colleagues, who agree that Hunter Biden’s controversial emails implicate influence peddling by his father and then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Last month, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and other House GOP lawmakers assembled a broad range of evidence showing that Joe and Hunter Biden were involved in influence peddling in dozens of countries around the world. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said the Biden's got rich by "offering access to the family" and that it raises serious national security issues that need to be investigated.

"Biden, Inc., as I call it, has been big business for the past 50 years. And Joe Biden, his children, his siblings have all been a part of this," Sen. Blackburn also told Kudlow. "They have built their career off Joe Biden's public service."

Following the Biden money and formally investigating the laptop findings could paint a bigger picture about the family’s relationship with China, Blackburn suggested.

"When you look at our dealings with China, why has Joe Biden not spoken out more in support of the Chinese protesters? Why is he not supporting them?" Blackburn questioned. "Why did Apple agree to cut off AirDrop? Why was Apple not called out by this White House for doing that?"

"When you look at China, when you look at these relationships that Biden Inc. has had over the past several decades, you have to ask who is really involved? What is the money flow? Where is it going?" the senator continued. "Why did the FBI try to go to social media to restrict this story, or to couch the laptop story as Russian disinformation?"

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday dismissed Elon Musk’s release of the so-called "Twitter Files" as an unhealthy "distraction" at a time when she says the platform is facing a rise in hate speech. 

"We see this as an interesting coincidence, if I may, that [Musk] would so haphazardly … push this distraction that is full of old news if you think about it," Jean-Pierre said. "And at the same time, Twitter is facing very real and very serious questions about the rising volume of anger, hate, and antisemitism on their platform and how they’re letting it happen."

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FOX Business’ Bradford Betz and Fox News’ Peter Kasperowicz contributed to this report.