A new report claims that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan, who reportedly served as the “main censorship liaison” between the FBI and social media companies during the 2020 presidential election cycle, has been placed on “terminal leave.”
Sharing a picture of Chan in a post on X, formerly Twitter, independent journalist Breanna Morello wrote, “FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan has been placed on ‘terminal leave’ and has not accessed his agency devices for over a month, sources confirm.”
Morello added, “Chan served as the main censorship liaison between the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and social media companies before the 2020 presidential election.”
The Post Millennial reported that as the “liaison” between social media companies and the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, Chan would have been responsible for helping flag content on social media that was considered by the FBI to be “misinformation.”
Morello reported that despite sources confirming that Chan had been placed on “terminal leave,” Chan’s LinkedIn webpage still lists him as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the FBI’s San Francisco Bay Area field office. According to Morello, Chan has held his position with the FBI for more than 19 years.
According to Morello, Chan’s reported departure from the FBI comes after the House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit last year accusing the FBI agent of obstructing the committee’s investigation into the government’s alleged censorship of social media content by failing to comply with a deposition subpoena.
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At the time, the House Judiciary Committee described Chan as a “pivotal figure” in the committee’s investigation of government censorship in coordination with social media companies. “Chan described himself as ‘one of the primary people with pass-through information,’ information that the companies used when deciding whether to restrict online content,” the House Judiciary Committee stated.
In response to Chan’s refusal to comply with the subpoena, the House’s Office of General Counsel wrote, “Chan has violated and continues to violate his legal obligations by refusing to appear before the Judiciary Committee.”
According to Morello, Chan was also a witness in Missouri v. Biden, which was a federal case regarding the government’s influence over the censorship of content on social media. Morello noted that during a deposition in the case, Chan claimed that he had “no internal knowledge” of the FBI’s suppression of The New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election.
The Post Millennial reported that the FBI conducted over 30 meetings with Twitter and other social media platforms in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.
