Plaintiff's Motion to Further Supplement Its Second Amended Complaint — Children's Health Defense v. Facebook, Inc.
Summary
A plaintiff's motion, Document 103 in Children's Health Defense v. Facebook, Inc., et al., Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI, United States District Court for the Northern District of California, filed June 7, 2021. Plaintiff Children's Health Defense moves for leave under Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(d) to supplement its Second Amended Complaint. It also asks for an order under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651, for the court to inspect in camera the unredacted March 15, 2020 email proposal that Defendants Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook tendered to Dr. Anthony Fauci. The motion argues that developments in May and June 2021 bear on its claims. The signature block names Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mary S. Holland and Roger I. Teich.
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- Date
- 2020-03-15
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“Plaintiff's Motion to Further Supplement Its Second Amended Complaint — Children's Health Defense v. Facebook, Inc..”
Original at archive.org, dated 2020-03-15. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2020-03-15-plaintiff-v-facebook-inc-et-al/
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ROGER I. TEICH California State Bar No. 147076 290 Nevada Street San Francisco, CA 94110 Telephone: (415) 948-0045 E-Mail Address: rteich@juno.com ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. MARY HOLLAND Children’s Health Defense 1227 North Peachtree Parkway, Suite 202 Peachtree City, GA 30269 Telephone: (917) 743-3868 E-Mail Address: mary.holland@childrenshealthdefense.org Attorneys for Plaintiff CHILDREN’S HEALTH DEFENSE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION CHILDREN’S HEALTH DEFENSE, Plaintiff, v. FACEBOOK, INC., et al., Defendants. Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO FURTHER SUPPLEMENT ITS SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT AND FOR IN CAMERA INSPECTION UNDER THE ALL WRITS ACT; RITA SHREFFLER DECLARATION AND EXHIBITS F.R.C.P 15(d); 28 U.S.C. § 1651 Hearing Date: ______ __, 2021 NOTICE OF MOTION TO SUPPLEMENT THE SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT AND FOR IN CAMERA INSPECTION UNDER THE ALL WRITS ACT PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT Plaintiff Children’s Health Defense (“CHD”) hereby moves for leave to file a pleading supplementing its Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”) pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(d). Under the extraordinary circumstances presented in this case, CHD also seeks an Order under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651, for the Court to inspect in camera the unredacted March 15, 2020 email proposal which Defendants Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook tendered to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 1 of 10 2 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Diseases and Chief Medical Adviser to the President, so that the Court may avoid a miscarriage of justice, and fully and fairly adjudicate the pending Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) motions. STATEMENT OF REQUESTED RELIEF In the last two weeks, new factual developments highly material to this case have taken place. These new facts confirm that Defendants Facebook and Zuckerberg: (1) deliberately, knowingly, and secretly embarked on a campaign to block speech and information according to a COVID “vaccine hesitancy” algorithm1 regardless of the truth or falsity of that speech, even as Facebook was proclaiming (falsely) to its users and the public that Facebook only blocked “false” COVID vaccine-related content; (2) undertook through private communication with Fauci to work directly with the federal government in connection with COVID-related information online, although the full content of this joint activity is still secret as a result of redactions on recently released documents. Accordingly, CHD respectfully requests leave to supplement the pleadings pursuant Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(d) and requests judicial inspection under seal of the critical redaction. MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES IN SUPPORT OF MOTION Factual Statement As this Court is well aware, this lawsuit alleges, inter alia, that Defendants have, and are actively: (1) colluding with federal governmental actors to violate CHD’s free speech rights; (2) have and are systematically censoring true online content and information while falsely stating that the censored content is false; and (3), as set forth in CHD’s first Rule 15(d) supplemental pleading, have entirely banished CHD’s founder and chair, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., from a Facebook platform, for posting true COVID and vaccine-related information while asserting falsely to the public that Mr. Kennedy was being censored because he had posted false content. In the last two weeks, new factual 1 Facebook’s stated goal in implementing the algorithm is to “drastically reduce user exposure to vaccine hesitancy (VH) in comments,” including by blocking or removing content from “dedicated vaccine discouraging entities” classifiers. (Schreffler Dec. Exh. 3.) Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 2 of 10 3 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 developments that are material to these claims have occurred. Specifically: On or about May 10, 2021, a high-ranking Facebook officer expressly admitted that, contrary to Facebook’s public and official Policy Statement, which asserts that Facebook removes COVID- and vaccine-related content only when such content is “false,” Facebook was actually removing content critical of, or questioning the safety of, the COVID vaccines regardless of whether that content was true or false. According to a Facebook vice president, the company is “removing groups, pages and accounts that deliberately discourage people from taking vaccines, regardless of whether the information can be verified as false or not.” BBC News, The volunteers using “honeypot” groups to fight anti-vax propaganda, May 10, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-57051691 (emphasis added); cf. Facebook, COVID-19 & Vaccine Policy Updates & Protections, www.facebook.com/help/230764881494641 (repeatedly stating that Facebook removes “false information” or “false claims” relating to COVID and vaccines). On or about May 24, 2021, a Facebook whistleblower (subsequently fired) went public with internal Facebook documents showing that, notwithstanding the company’s public declarations that it censored only “false” vaccine-related claims, Facebook was (and is) in fact systematically and covertly censoring true vaccine-related content, as well as mere expressions of opinion, provided such content was (or is) deemed capable of leading to “vaccine hesitancy.” See Project Veritas, BREAKING: Facebook Whistleblowers Expose LEAKED INTERNAL DOCS Detailing New Effort to Secretly Censor Vaccine Concerns on a Global Scale, May 24, 2021, https://www.projectveritas.com/news/breaking-facebook- whistleblowers-expose-leaked-internal-docs-detailing-new. (Shreffler Dec. Ex. 2.) On or about May 25, 2021, Facebook reversed its pre-existing ban on content suggesting that COVID was “manmade or manufactured.” Cristiano Lima, Facebook no longer treating ‘man-made’ Covid as a crackpot idea, POLITICO, May 25, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/26/facebook-ban-covid-man-made-491053. This abrupt reversal followed on the heels of Fauci’s similar backtracking from his own earlier dismissals of the hypothesis that COVID originated in a Wuhan laboratory. See Jonathan Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 3 of 10 4 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Turley, Facebook says mentions of COVID-19’s possible origins in Wuhan are now allowed. How generous, FOX NEWS, May 27, 2021, https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/facebook- covid-19-origins-wuhan-jonathan-turley (“Now, however, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, and others have acknowledged that there is a basis for suspect[ing] the lab as the origin of the outbreak. So now Facebook will allow you to talk about it.”). On or about June 3-4, 2021, Defendant Zuckerberg and Facebook Vice-President Heidi Swarz essentially admitted in a video that the whistleblower-leaked documents were authentic Facebook documents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S3246XJBOI. Neither denied the existence of Facebook’s massive “vaccine hesitancy” censorship program, in which content, including completely true information and/or expression of opinion, is blocked or restricted if it criticizes or questions the safety, efficacy, or necessity of the COVID vaccines. Id. On or about June 1-5, 2021, a large number of previously undisclosed emails by or to Dr. Fauci were released to the public as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests. One such email, dated March 15, 2020, was written to Fauci by Defendant Zuckerberg, proposing a collaboration related to COVID and vaccine-related information. See https:// www.documentcloud.org/documents/20793561-leopold-nih-foia-anthony-fauci-emails; https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nataliebettendorf/fauci-emails-covid-response. (Shreffler Dec. Ex. 3.) The email discloses to Fauci not-yet-public Facebook plans to launch a COVID information “hub” that would be visible to all of Facebook’s billions of users and proposes collaboration on that “hub” to help “get your message out.” Id. The full extent of the proposed collaboration is, however, unknown because four critical lines have been redacted. Id. Referring to this portion of Zuckerberg’s email to Fauci, National Institutes of Health communications director Courtney Billet sent Fauci an email (also just disclosed, but also partially redacted) the next day, March 16, 2020, saying: “But an even bigger deal is his [Zuckerberg’s] offer [CONTENT REDACTED]. The sooner we get that offer up the food Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 4 of 10 5 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 chain the better. I gave Bill a heads-up and he is standing by to discuss this with HHS and WH comms, but I didn’t want him to do anything without you being aware of the offer. Is it OK if I hand this aspect off to Bill to determine who the best point of contact would be so the Administration can take advantage of this offer, soonest? Do you plan to call MZ? His cell number is in his message below.” (Ex. 3.) Fauci responded by email to Billet the following day, March 17, 2020: “I will write to or call Mark and tell him that I am interested in doing this. I will then tell him that you will get for him the name of the USG point of contact.” Id. Fauci also responded to Zuckerberg that day, March 17, 2020: “Your idea and proposal sound terrific. I would be happy to do a video for your hub. . . . Also, your idea about [REDACTED] is very exciting. I am . . . copying the Director of my Communications and Government Relations Group. She can put your people in touch with the best person who could be the US Government point of contact for [REDACTED.]” (Id.) All the redactions referred to in the above emails are notated “(b)(4)” (as the legal basis for the redaction), indicating “trade secrets and commercial or financial information.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(4). ARGUMENT A. Second Request to Supplement the SAC Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(d) “permit[s] a party to serve a supplemental pleading setting out any transaction, occurrence, or event that happened after the date of the pleading to be supplemented.” While a motion pursuant to Rule 15(d) is “addressed to the sound discretion of the District Court,” United States v. Reiten, 313 F.2d 673, 675 (9th Cir. 1963), “leave to permit supplemental pleading is ‘favored.’” Verinata Health, Inc. v. Sequenom, Inc., No. C 12-00865 SI, 2014 U.S. Dist. Lexis 67221 at * 6 (N.D. Cal. May 14, 2014) (quoting Planned Parenthood of So. Ariz. v. Neely, 130 F.3d 400, 402 (9th Cir. 1997). In general, Rule 15(d) motions “should be granted ‘[u]nless undue prejudice to the opposing party will result.’” LaSalvia v. United Dairymen of Ariz., 804 F.2d 1113, 1119 (9th Cir. 1986) (citation omitted). Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 5 of 10 6 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 The allegations set forth in a Rule 15(d) supplemental pleading need not arise from the same “transaction” or facts set forth in the original pleading; instead, all that is required is a “relationship” between the subject of the original pleading and the subsequently occurring facts. Keith v. Volpe, 858 F.2d 467, 474 (9th Cir. 1988) (“While some relationship must exist between the newly alleged matters and the subject of the original action, they need not all arise out of the same transaction.”); Verinata Health, Inc., supra at * 6. The new facts alleged in CHD’s supplemental pleading readily pass this test. They bear not only “some relationship” to the “subject of the original action,” Keith v. Volpe, 858 F.2d at 474, but a direct, important, and supporting relationship to the crux of the claims made in the SAC. First, the disclosure of Facebook’s secret “vaccine hesitancy” censorship program confirms and further evidences CHD’s core allegation that Defendants covertly censor true COVID- and vaccine- related information, as well as opinions critical of the COVID vaccines, while publicly claiming (falsely) that their censorship of such content is based solely on factual falsity. This in turn bolsters the plausibility of CHD’s central claim that Defendants have been—not to put too fine a point on it—lying in their repeated assertions that CHD and Mr. Kennedy were censored because they posted false content. The true reason why CHD and Mr. Kennedy have been censored, as further evidenced by the new disclosures, is that their content is critical of, and reveals true information that could raise concerns about, the COVID vaccines. Second, Facebook’s abrupt decision to stop banning mentions of the COVID lab-leak hypothesis, following Dr. Fauci’s similar about-face, confirms, further evidences, and makes more plausible CHD’s allegations that: (1) Facebook has been banning true content while claiming such content to be false; (2) Facebook has banned core protected speech (the hypothesis that COVID originated in a Wuhan laboratory was and is as legitimate, as a matter of free speech, as Galileo’s hypothesis about the Earth’s motion around the sun) under the pretext of restricting misinformation; and (3) that Facebook is acting as a censor for the federal government, willfully participating in joint activity with federal officials to decide what speech will and won’t be permitted on its platforms, banning information when federal officials want it banned and permitting information when federal officials change their minds. Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 6 of 10 7 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Third, the email exchange between Zuckerberg and Fauci further evidences and makes more plausible CHD’s core allegation that Defendants actively and willfully participate in ongoing joint activity with federal officials in the suppression of COVID- and vaccine-related speech. While the full nature and extent of the collaboration proposed by Zuckerberg to Fauci in the March 15, 2020 email cannot be known at this time—because it has been redacted— it is highly plausible to infer, given the subject matter of the email (Facebook efforts to deal with COVID-related information), the timing of Zuckerberg’s “offer,” the legal basis noted for redacting it, the importance attributed to it by governmental officials, and the alacrity with which they responded, that: (a) the offer was acted upon; and (b) that it concerned working together on Facebook’s efforts to censor COVID-related content. The email’s timing is especially indicative of this conclusion. In March of 2020, the month when Zuckerberg sent this email, Facebook was then intensely engaged in its early effort to devise methods to “suppress misinformation about the Coronavirus.” Jeff Horwitz, Facebook Fights Hoaxes and Hysteria in Its Virus-Themed Groups, WALL ST. J., Mar. 6, 2020, https:// www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-fights-hoaxes-and-hysteria-in-its-virus-themed-groups-11583505221. The next month, April 2020, as alleged in the SAC, Facebook would begin what became a concerted, massive, system-wide program of monitoring COVID-related content and suppressing posts deemed (often falsely) to be “misinformation.” Moreover, as further alleged in the SAC, Facebook would later admit that in determining what COVID-related content counted as misinformation, Facebook was “advised” by “public health authorities.” It is therefore plausible to believe that Facebook, as part of this effort, was seeking assistance, advice, and collaboration between itself or its fact-checkers with federal health organizations such as the CDC, HHS, or the NIH to identify for or with Facebook specific types of information which those organizations wanted to be suppressed, that Zuckerberg was proposing such a collaboration to Fauci, and that Fauci, through his reply to Zuckerberg, initiated this collaboration. Indeed, as set forth in the SAC, Facebook began “fact-checking” CHD’s COVID-related posts almost immediately after Zuckerberg's March 15, 2020 “even bigger deal” proposal, e.g., April 9, 2020 RFK, Jr. post on Gates/vaccine development; April 16, 2020 flu vaccine and Coronavirus; April 16, 2020 Dr. Montagnier origin of COVID; May 26, 2020 RFK, Jr. video on Fauci vaccines. (Dkt. 65-1 [SAC ¶¶ 125- 128, 151-155. 168-175, 189-190].) Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 7 of 10 8 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 This conclusion would also explain the legal basis offered for the redaction—that the redacted content was a “trade secret”—because Facebook was then and is even today attempting to keep secret its massive, evolving “vaccine-misinformation” surveillance and censorship program. The “trade secret” redaction plausibly suggests that Zuckerberg was offering up a proprietary means to sift and siphon out from the global dialogue that side which runs counter to the views of Fauci, the “WH,” or “HHS,” as reflected in its “vaccine hesitancy classifier” score. As alleged in the SAC, and bolstered by these supplemental allegations, Facebook has partnered from the very start with the federal government in its COVID censorship regime. These allegations are of particular significance to Count 4 of the SAC, which seeks declaratory relief to redress continuing harms and chilling effects on CHD’s exercise of First Amendment rights. Facebook makes its censorship decision in concert with the government and with what the government says is true and false. This is ongoing joint activity. Plaintiff CHD is therefore entitled to supplement its pleading with these new factual disclosures and to discovery of the collaboration between Facebook and the federal government to which the Zuckerberg/Fauci email refers. Defendants can claim no surprise or prejudice in the addition of these facts to the pleadings. The new facts involve actions taken by Defendants themselves and are thus within Defendants’ own knowledge. Moreover, there can be no “prejudice” to Defendants in the legal sense when their new acts furthering or evidencing the very same illegal courses of conduct originally pleaded are brought before the Court. B. Request for In Camera Inspection of Zuckerberg-Fauci March 15, 2020 Email Proposal The All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651, empowers the Court to issue all writs necessary or appropriate “to assist [it] in conducting factual inquires.” Harris v. Nelson, 394 U.S. 286, 300 (1969) (citation omitted); 28 U.S.C. § 1651 (“The Supreme Court and all courts established by Act of Congress may issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law"). Defendants seek dismissal with prejudice of CHD’s Bivens and declaratory relief claims on the grounds that none of their challenged conduct is “fairly attributable” to the federal government, Zuckerberg was not plausibly involved in any such conduct, and no amendment could cure those deficiencies. (Dkt. 69 at 7, 26-8.) To resolve those potentially case-dispositive issues, Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 8 of 10 9 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 CHD asks that the Court lift the discovery stay for the limited but essential purpose of requiring Facebook to lodge with the Court under seal an unredacted copy of the March 15, 2020 Zuckerberg- Fauci email proposal. Having the authority to issue such an Order, the Court’s review of the four unredacted lines of text in that single document in conjunction with its Rule 12(b)(6) adjudication is both necessary and warranted. See also Jimenez v. City of Napa, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93284, at *12 (N.D. Cal. 2017) (district court alluded to the “chicken or egg” problem that often occurs in the context of Monell claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and noted its practice to allow the plaintiff to make a prima facie-type showing which would then permit some limited discovery prior to full adjudication of a 12(b)(6) motion.) In Cheney v. U.S. Dist. Court for Dist. of Columbia, 542 U.S. 367, 380 (2004), the Supreme Court set forth three conditions that must be satisfied before issuance of a writ under § 1651: First, the party seeking issuance of the writ [must] have no other adequate means to attain the relief he desires. . . . Second, the petitioner must satisfy the burden of showing that [his] right to issuance of the writ is “clear and indisputable.” Third, even if the first two prerequisites have been met, the issuing court, in the exercise of its discretion, must be satisfied that the writ is appropriate under the circumstances. Id. at 380-81. CHD meets all three conditions for issuance of the writ. First, CHD has no other means to furnish the Court with the unredacted Zuckerberg-Fauci March 15, 2020 email proposal given the pre- discovery posture of the case. Second, the portion of that email which is now a matter of public record contains at least a prima facie indication of joint action between Facebook and the federal government. See e.g., Jiminez, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93284, at *12 (leaving the door open to “narrow, focused discovery” on Monell prior to adjudication of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion). Third, the writ is appropriate under the circumstances because it is narrowly-tailored to CHD’s demonstrable need; it may avert a potential miscarriage of justice should CHD’s case be dismissed with prejudice while Zuckerberg’s proposal to Fauci remains secret and operative; and inspection under seal fully respects and accords protection to whatever legitimate trade secret privilege Facebook may still possess in the redacted portion of the document. /// /// /// Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 9 of 10 10 Plaintiff’s Motion to Serve a Supplemental Pleading and Request for In Camera Inspection CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 CONCLUSION For the reasons stated above, Plaintiff CHD respectfully requests that the Court grant its motion to supplement the pleadings pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. Rule 15(d), and for in camera inspection of the unredacted March 15, 2020 Zuckerberg-Fauci email proposal. Dated: June 7, 2021 Respectfully submitted, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. Founder and Chairman, Children’s Health Defense MARY S. HOLLAND General Counsel, Children’s Health Defense ROGER I. TEICH Counsel for Plaintiff Children’s Health Defense Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI Document 103 Filed 06/07/21 Page 10 of 10
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