The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Agency

Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • INF-4.1: FBI, DHS and ODNI officials met regularly with platform staff about election content from 2017 and 2018, under the Trump administration, and the meetings continued through the 2022 midterms under the Biden administration.
  • INF-4.2: The FBI agent who ran the Bureau's platform contacts testified, from recollection, that about half of the items the FBI flagged led a platform to act under its terms of service. Twitter told a court in 2023 that its employees reviewed the FBI's flagged tweets independently.
  • INF-4.4: Twitter's chief executive told the Senate Judiciary Committee on 17 November 2020 that Twitter's 2018 hacked-materials policy was informed by conversations with the U.S. government. Twitter's head of Site Integrity stated in a declaration to the Federal Election Commission that Twitter's Trust and Safety leadership decided on 14 October 2020 to enforce the policy against the New York Post articles.
  • INF-4.7: No public dataset states how many government reports to platforms from 2017 to 2024 led to removal, by agency, platform and administration. The only figure in the record is the FBI agent's recollection of about half.
  • INF-5.8: On 26 May 2021 the President stated that the Intelligence Community had "coalesced around two likely scenarios" and had not reached a definitive conclusion. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence's assessment of 29 October 2021 says all agencies assess natural exposure and a laboratory-associated incident as plausible, that the virus was not developed as a biological weapon, and that most agencies assess with low confidence that it probably was not genetically engineered.
  • DEF-6.8: Part Four of the 2002 Joint Inquiry report, commonly called the 28 pages, was withheld in full until 15 July 2016. It reports leads about Saudi-linked contacts with the hijackers, and the Inquiry stated it made no final determinations.
  • POL-7.15: A letter published on 19 October 2020 by former senior intelligence officials, counted at 51 in Executive Order 14152, said the Hunter Biden emails had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation" and said the signers "do not have evidence of Russian involvement." On 20 January 2025 the order directed revocation of the signers' security clearances and stated that they "willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions."

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 322 15 July 2016. Office of the Director of National Intelligence: ODNI statement on declassification of Part Four of the 2002 Joint Inquiry report
  • Exhibit 870 19 October 2020. Signatories (former senior national security and intelligence officials), first published by Politico: Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails (open letter of 51 former intelligence officials)
  • Exhibit 1072 26 May 2021. The White House: Statement by President Joe Biden on the Investigation into the Origins of COVID-19
  • Exhibit 1073 29 October 2021 (information through August 2021). Office of the Director of National Intelligence: Updated Assessment on COVID-19 Origins
  • Exhibit 1116 29 November 2022. U.S. District Court, W.D. La. (deposition taken by plaintiffs, 29 November 2022; filed 3 March 2023): Deposition of Elvis Chan (FBI San Francisco), Missouri v. Biden, No. 3:22-cv-01213 (W.D. La.), Doc. 204-1
  • Exhibit 1119 17 December 2020 (response letter of 21 December 2020). Twitter, Inc. (counsel Covington & Burling) to the Federal Election Commission: Declaration of Yoel Roth (Twitter Head of Site Integrity), 17 December 2020, Exhibit A to Twitter's response in FEC MUR 7821 / MUR 7827
  • Exhibit 1257 17 December 2004. U.S. Congress: Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Pub. L. 108-458, sec. 1011
  • Exhibit 1258 30 October 2007. Office of the Director of National Intelligence: DNI Releases Budget Figure for National Intelligence Program (ODNI News Release No. 22-07)
  • Exhibit 1259 28 October 2008. Office of the Director of National Intelligence: DNI Releases Budget Figure for 2008 National Intelligence Program (ODNI News Release No. 17-08)
  • Exhibit 1260 30 October 2009. Office of the Director of National Intelligence: DNI Releases Budget Figure for 2009 National Intelligence Program (ODNI News Release No. 33-09)
  • Exhibit 1261 28 October 2010. Office of the Director of National Intelligence: DNI Releases Budget Figure for 2010 National Intelligence Program (ODNI News Release No. 21-10)