By adding 47 new defendants to a Big Tech collusion lawsuit, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry may be in a better position to support their claims, according to a former state AG.
“They still have to gather evidence to make their case, but by asserting these additional defendants, it suggests that they have secured enough information to justify or warrant adding them as defendants and that bodes well,” said Curtis Hill, who served as the 43rd Attorney General of Indiana from 2017 to 2021.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, Schmitt and Landry sued the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana for allegedly engaging in government action by suppressing disfavored speakers on the YouTube, Meta, and Twitter platforms.
“There certainly appears to be evidence of some type of collusion between the government and Big Tech,” Hill told the St. Louis Record. “There's been information for months suggesting that Big Tech was doing the bidding of the government.”
The list of new defendants includes top officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Preisdent Biden’s White House.
Hill further stated that the federal lawsuit is important to the average Missourian because of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“The First Amendment applies to government action so private companies can do what they want because they're not government entities. But if there's some connection between a private entity or private company taking action at the behest of a government actor, that then could arguably make that private entity a government actor, subject to the same type of consequences as a government actor originator,” he said.
Schmitt and Landry have also asked the court for permission to depose the additional defendants under oath. If granted, the court can expect depositions of U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Interim Administrator Andy Slavitt, U.S. Digital Strategy Deputy Assistant Rob Flaherty, White House Counsel Dana Remus, FBI Section Chief for the Foreign Influence Task Force Laura Dehmlow, and CDC Deputy Communications Director Kate Galatas.
“As Ronald Reagan said, ‘Most of our problems are because of government,’” Hill added. “So, the solution to our problems is reasonable. People breaking bread, sharing thoughts and ideas, having empathy for their fellow man, and coming up with positive solutions. Turning our issues over to the government, or having the government make the decision of what we'll hear and what we won't hear is a big, big, big mistake.”