The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the court-ordered depositions of three Biden administration officials in a lawsuit targeting social media censorship.
The New York Post reported Monday that the court temporarily blocked the depositions of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly, and White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty on Monday.
The appeals court wrote that the lower court must analyze whether the information provided by the officials could be obtained by other, “less intrusive” means.
The officials were previously ordered to give depositions on the Biden administration’s collusion with Big Tech companies to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story and so-called “misinformation” about COVID-19.
NewsBusters reported last week that the district court refused to block the depositions of the officials. Dr. Anthony Fauci and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki are still scheduled to be deposed.
At the time, the district court wrote in its order that Fauci had “personal knowledge” about online censorship related to COVID-19:
“Plaintiffs have proven that Dr. Fauci has personal knowledge about the issue concerning censorship across social media as it related to COVID-19 and ancillary issues of COVID-19. The Court has considered that Dr. Fauci is a high-ranking official, especially as he is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President. The Court sees the only potential burden imposed on Dr. Fauci as a result of him being deposed is that of his time.”
The lawsuit cites original research from Media Research Center’s CensorTrack that recorded pro-Biden censorship 646 times between March 10, 2020, and March 10, 2022.
MRC also found that the purposeful censorship of the New York Post stories covering the Hunter Biden laptop scandal helped sway the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
