Peoria Standard

Illinois' ties to Hunter Biden are being recalled now that Twitter has released its files behind the decision to hold a story containing accusations against Biden.

Included in Biden’s emails were those to Amtrak Board of Directors member Tom Carper in 2010 when he was regional director of the West Central region for Opportunity Returns. Biden’s email archive shows he his relationship with Carper and discusses Biden’s investment company Rosemont Seneca Partners. Some of the emails are titled “equipment procurement.” In one email Carper shares a story from The Peoria Journal Star. 

“Hunter, This in today's  Peoria paper. Tom,” the email reads and includes a story on former GOP congressman Ray LaHood being selected to former president Barack Obama’s cabinet. 

Rosemont Seneca Partners included Christopher Heinz, the stepson to former Secretary of State and onetime presidential candidate John Kerry. The group was an umbrella corporation noted to have investments of over $2 billion in its subsidiaries including Rosemont Capital Trunk, Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners, and Rosemont Realty.

The local ties arise amid the release of the "Twitter Files" – a 41-tweet thread allegedly exposing political influence in Twitter’s censorship process – Taibbi alleges the emails were suppressed for the purpose of deflecting bad press from Joe Biden prior to the 2020 election and that the Biden campaign was directly involved in having the  material removed from the platform. The story was removed and access to the New York Post’s Twitter account was suspended amid warnings from the FBI – allegedly under the influence of former Twitter lawyer Jim Baker, who formerly worked for the FBI – that the information came from Russian operatives. 

“Although several sources recalled hearing about a 'general' warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence - that I've seen - of any government involvement in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem…” Taibbi said in the Twitter Files.

Former Vice President Mike Pence called the revelation “deeply offensive.” Pence shared with the New York Post that he thinks “it may well be because Elon Musk, who I came to know very well during the four years of the Trump administration, I think it’s because he is preparing to release information, finally, about the suppression of the Hunter Biden story, which … was a disgrace." He added that “The fact that a laptop was discovered in the weeks before the election, that emails were revealed and that social media platforms, including Twitter, actually suppressed access to a New York Post story is deeply offensive to me.”

In his SubStack, Matt Bivens said he is looking forward to learning more about how Twitter has been used as a force for control. “‘Manipulated by whom? And to what end?’ Those are important remaining questions, and here too, so far, the Twitter Files come up short. In particular, I want to hear more about the involvement of three-letter security agencies like FBI and CIA in shaping our social media, and by extension our world views,” Bivens wrote.  

Due to the release, Twitter owner Elon Musk said "I should probably increase my security." 

"The idea here is to come clean on everything that has happened in the past in order to build public trust for the future,” Musk said regarding the release of Twitter Files.