Former Twitter execs tell Republicans they erred on Hunter Biden laptop story

Former Twitter executives told a Republican-led U.S. House committee on Wednesday that they made a mistake by blocking tweets about a laptop said to belong to President Joe Biden's son Hunter but said government officials were not involved.

At a combative day-long hearing before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, Republicans claimed that Twitter cooperated with government officials and the news media to suppress a New York Post article on the laptop's contents, two weeks ahead of Biden's 2020 election victory over former President Donald Trump, a Republican.

The committee's witnesses, three former Twitter executives, said in subpoenaed testimony that they mistakenly believed the Post article contained hacked material and reversed their decision to limit its circulation on the social media platform within 24 hours.

Democrats accused Republicans of pursuing a politically motivated fishing expedition against Biden and raised concerns about witness intimidation after a Republican lawmaker warned the former executives that they would be held accountable for activities she deemed "highly illegal."