Ex-FBI Lawyer Behind Russiagate Part Of Leftist Election Group

The former FBI general counsel who pushed Twitter to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story is now working with a left-wing election influencers’ group.

James Baker, also prominent for his role in pushing the FBI’s political persecution of former President Donald Trump for the “Russiagate” hoax, is listed as a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises. The group is a subsidiary of the left-wing Protect Democracy Project, a litigation group formed to oppose Trump’s policies, according to InfluenceWatch.

The task force pushes early and mail-in voting, claims to help prevent “cyber or other attacks by foreign adversaries or domestic disrupters,” promotes “pre-canvassing of absentee ballots,” seeks to discourage legal election challenges, and advocates for censorship of certain online speech about elections.

Working for the Regime

Baker’s key areas of expertise, according to the group’s website, are “legal and legislative issues,” “political violence and intimidation,” “foreign and cyber interference,” and “election subversion.”

Baker certainly knows about “legal issues.” While serving as the FBI’s lead counsel, he met with Michael Sussmann — who he later admitted was a “friend” — and who provided “intel” supposedly proving connections between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, a Russian company. Sussmann claimed he was acting on his own behalf, though he was later found to have been working for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Baker should also know about “political violence and intimidation,” considering that he prompted the FBI to investigate Trump using Sussmann’s faulty information. He also told Congress Sussmann’s lie in 2018 that a server at Trump Tower was in communication with Alfa Bank. Upon finding the claim false, he failed to show any concern. Maybe “Russiagate” is also where he gets his experience with “foreign interference.”

He has plenty of experience with “cyber interference” too, considering his push to censor the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, as revealed in the “Twitter Files.”

Baker started working at Twitter — now X — as deputy general counsel in 2020. He worked with the FBI to push the company’s censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story, which depicted shady business dealings involving now-President Joe Biden.

“I’m guessing that we are going to restrict access to this article as a violation of our Hacked Materials policy but after yesterday I don’t want to assume anything,” Baker wrote in an email on Oct. 15, 2020.

Elon Musk later fired Baker for his role in pushing regime censorship. “In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today,” Musk posted in 2022.

The intersection of Baker’s past with the group’s activities should be cause for concern. Perhaps this is where his final skill, “election subversion,” comes into play.

Election Meddlers

The National Task Force on Election Crises aims to “hold candidates and their attorneys accountable for knowingly pursuing bad-faith or frivolous legal challenges; continue to pursue accountability for those who committed criminal acts on and leading up to January 6th.”

The group also works to “downgrade or delete rather than label election-related disinformation,” “hand-pick or remove trending lists and up-next recommendations for election-related content,” and “inoculate against disinformation about voting options and the validity of election results.” Disinformation, of course, is left-wing censors’ favored way to describe inconvenient or counter-narrative speech.

These promises should not be considered empty. The members of this group include some of the most influential left-wing election meddlers in recent history.

Tiana Epps-Johnson, founder of the Center for Tech and Civic Life, and David Becker, a “hardcore leftist” and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, are both members. CTCL and CEIR shuttled close to $420 million from Mark Zuckerberg to local elections offices in 2020, boosting Democrat turnout in the general election.

Amber McReynolds, a governor of the United States Postal Service, is also a member. In 2020, the National Vote at Home Institute — of which she was CEO at the time, and which shares leadership ties with CTCL — accessed absentee ballots and worked to shift Michigan election policy.

Tammy Patrick, CEO of programs at the National Association of Election Officials, is another member of the group. She was a senior adviser for elections at the left-wing financial powerhouse Democracy Fund, and she sits on the circle of advisors at NVAHI.

If the political connections of this group’s members do not already raise suspicions, Baker’s role should cause serious concern. His former persecution and censorship of the regime’s political opponents promise more of the same.

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is originally from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.