FBI Agent Who Coordinated 2020 Election Censorship Placed on Terminal Leave

FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan is now on terminal leave, according to reporter Breanna Morello, who reported that she spoke to sources familiar with the matter The agent has not accessed any of his devices for more than a month.

Morello reported, “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.”

Chan played a key role in the FBI’s coordination with social media companies before the 2020 presidential election.

He acted as a liaison between the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and major tech platforms, helping flag content the FBI viewed as election-related "misinformation."

Despite being off duty, Chan’s LinkedIn profile still identifies him as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the FBI’s San Francisco Bay Area office, a position he has held for over 19 years, Morello reported.

Congressional scrutiny of Chan's role intensified in 2023 after huge leaks, now known as the Twitter Files, were released upon Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent a letter in late 2023 asking for a transcribed interview with the FBI employee who “played a key role” in efforts “to suppress true information about Biden family influence peddling shortly before the 2020 presidential election,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Post.

“Even though the FBI had been in possession of this laptop for nearly a year and had verified the provenance of its contents, the FBI made the institutional decision to refuse to answer direct questions from social media companies about the laptop’s authenticity—despite months of constant information sharing up to that time,” Jordan wrote in the letter.

“Put simply, after the FBI conditioned social media companies to believe that the laptop was the product of a foreign malign influence operation, the FBI stopped its information sharing, allowing social media companies to censor the New York Post story on the incorrect basis that it was Russian disinformation,” he added.

Prior to the 2020 vote, the FBI held more than 30 meetings with platforms including Twitter and others.