“It would be almost impossible for us to refuse to turn them over to Congress”
On March 11, three weeks after Zatko urged his colleagues to hire Alethea Group, he emailed his colleagues to express his concerns about Twitter's legal department holding up the release of Alethea Group's work product.
Twitter Deputy Counsel Jim Baker explains that he wants Alethea’s analytical products to be owned by Twitter’s law firm, so that Congress cannot subpoena them in the future.
“Our goal here,” says Baker, “is to enable the company to retain control via the attorney-client privilege of any reports, slide decks, interview summaries, or other materials that Alethea produces to us in the event that we receive congressional or other subpoenas or document requests (such as in connection with civil lawsuits against the company).”
“Right now,” stresses Baker, “our outside counsel assesses that if we do nothing, the Alethea materials would not be privileged and it would be almost impossible for us to refuse to turn them over to Congress, the executive branch, or a civil litigant.” Baker’s supervisor agreed.
The document “creates risk,” he writes. What are the risks? Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop, the 2020 elections, and the 2021 Capitol riots.
Later events would prove that Baker, his boss, and the Jenner & Block attorney were all right to be worried.