White House engaged in 'vast censorship enterprise' against conservatives, COVID critics: Missouri AG

One of two state attorneys general filing a civil suit against the Biden administration claimed in a Fox Business exclusive he uncovered a "vast censorship enterprise" and produced purported evidence the White House's social media team leadership tried to censor or suppress conservative voices and critics of its COVID policy – including a member of a prominent Democratic family.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who along with Louisiana Attorney General Jeffrey Landry, first filed suit last May. However, Bailey told "The Bottom Line" Tuesday the web of purported censorship continues to grow.

"This is about protecting the Constitution, and I couldn't agree with those sentiments more," he said, after host Dagen McDowell read from part of the lawsuit.

"I'm proud to have partnered with the Louisiana attorney general on this case because it's the most important First Amendment case in a generation. We've uncovered a vast censorship enterprise, coercion and collusion between officials at the White House and across federal bureaucratic agencies and their cronies in Big Tech/social media to target and censor free speech in America."

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He underlined that the case is preeminently a First Amendment defense rather than any type of political attack.

Earlier this month, Bailey also released a statement chronicling several legal "exhibits" germane to the case, which include a purported attempt by the White House to get Twitter to censor Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – the son of Bobby Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Bailey characterized Kennedy, who has questioned aspects of the coronavirus vaccines, as "a known critic of the White House's COVID-19 narrative."

Another exhibit alleges White House Digital Director Rob Flaherty "demand[ed] Facebook step up its operations of ‘removing bad information’ on vaccines" – while others scolded Facebook for not taking substantive action against posts by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

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On "The Bottom Line," McDowell noted a recent op-ed by Landry invoked Flaherty, asking Bailey how many White House figures they believe to be involved in attempted suppression of speech.

"[W]e have tens of thousands of pages of records, hundreds of pages of depositions. We've deposed key officials at the White House, at the FBI, at Homeland Security and at the State Department. And we're not finished yet," he said.

Of note, a Jefferson City, Mo., ABC affiliate reported in November that Dr. Anthony Fauci was to be deposed.

"We're going to continue to root out this vast censorship enterprise that violates Americans free speech," Bailey continued on Fox Business. "And we're not going to stop. But the key piece of evidence we found is that there were individuals with the White House specifically targeting conservative voices on Big Tech social media."

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Topics the White House purportedly wanted suppressed including not only COVID-19 vaccine reticence, but claims of 2020 election interference and the veracity of the Hunter Biden laptop.

"What that did was they coerced the Big Tech social media companies into suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story. Now, that's information Americans deserve to hear," Bailey went on.

"They deserve to have that information in free, fair and open debate to make good decisions at the ballot box. They were deprived of that information."

The lawsuit, he said, is still in the discovery phase, adding that if necessary he and Landry will petition the U.S. Supreme Court on the matter if it gets to that level.