Former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson told “Pod Force One” in the latest episode, released Wednesday, that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer could be handing over even more records about its talks with Biden administration officials who sought to suppress online speech.
“Pfizer will have to turn over documents talking about their communications with the Biden administration,” Berenson told The Post’s Miranda Devine on the podcast, referencing his ongoing lawsuit against Pfizer executives for violating his First Amendment rights. “And to me, that would be huge.”
Berenson, one of the most prominent skeptics of the US response to COVID-19, previously settled a suit against Twitter, now X, in 2022 for breach of contract after the social media platform banned him from posting in August 2021 amid the pandemic.
In 2023, he also filed a suit against Biden administration officials, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and the pharma company’s board member Scott Gottlieb in 2023, alleging coercion that trampled on his free speech rights.
Both the 2022 Twitter suit and the government’s side of the 2023 suit resulted in settlements, but Berenson expressed hope that — even after congressional investigations produced documents showing that big tech censored online posts flagged by the Biden White House — more evidence comes to light.
“These Biden administration officials, they were leaning on … they were directly pressuring these social media companies saying you’re allowing vaccine misinformation, you’re killing people,” the ex-investigative business reporter said.
“The companies said, ‘Look, these people have First Amendment right to talk, or we think they should be allowed to talk, and by the way, you’re putting pressure on us. We don’t like that, that seems to implicate the First Amendment,’” he continued.
“The Biden administration was like, ‘No, this is really bad, you’re allowing it. If this continues, we may try to go after Section 230 protection,’ which is very valuable to social media companies.”
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Berenson singled out Andrew Slavitt and Rob Flaherty — who were both named in his 2023 lawsuit — as having been focused on suppressing posts on Twitter and Facebook, respectively.
“They really bullied them,” he emphasized, acknowledging that Pfizer has argued against his attorneys that Slavitt wasn’t in a White House role during a portion of the period in question.
Berenson’s legal challenges were also separate from the most high-profile ruling involving government suppression of free speech during the COVID-era, Missouri v. Biden, which a federal circuit court judge — citing, in part, communications from Flaherty — likened to an “Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”
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“If I can get what’s left of the case, even though I’ve settled with the federal government, against Pfizer to move forward, it would be a significant win for me. Not just [a] win for me, but a win for … the First Amendment,” he told “Pod Force One.”
“And for this idea that, listen, unvaccinated people were punished in 2021, we’re going to acknowledge that, and this discovery. What was Pfizer in the summer of 2021 talking to the Biden administration about?” he asked.
“Because it’s not just about me, it’s about whether or not they knew the vaccines were failing, whether they thought a mandate was coming … the conversations that this company, which had a huge financial interest here, and the government were having.”
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