House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is stepping up the investigation into government "collusion" with Big Tech to censor dissent, issuing subpoenas to FBI Director Chris Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The official subpoenas came Thursday amid "woefully inadequate" responses to "requesting voluntary cooperation with oversight," according to the House Judiciary Committee news release.
The committee, which made its initial requests in April, noted that the only participation to date has been "a publicly available transcript of a civil deposition of FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan from Missouri v. Biden."
Missouri v. Biden is a lawsuit brought against the Biden administration for having coordinated with Big Tech companies and led to a federal judge blocking the U.S. government under Biden from continuing its direct contacts amid litigation in the lawsuit brought by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who sued when he was the state's attorney general.
Chan was exposed by the Twitter Files and Jordan's Facebook Files as the FBI liaison with Big Tech companies.
"Through its investigation, the committee has uncovered evidence that contradicts several statements in Agent Chan's deposition, particularly as they relate to his communications with social media platforms," according to the House Judiciary.
"For the committee to inform potential legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the Executive Branch's ability to work with social media platforms and other companies to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the committee must first understand the nature of this collusion and coercion between the federal government and Big Tech companies."
The subpoenas were sent to the FBI director, who is Chan's boss, and Biden AG Garland, who oversees the Justice Department, which includes the FBI.