Diamond and Silk make false statements to Congress while under oath

Pro-Trump social media stars Diamond and Silk testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee this Thursday, and falsely claimed that they were never paid for their consulting work.

But filing with the Federal Election Committee show otherwise.

“We have never been paid by the Trump campaign,” Lynette Hardaway, who goes by Diamond, told Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) during her testimony.

But as The Hill points out, FEC filings show that the campaign paid the duo $1,275 on Nov. 22, 2016, for “field consulting.”

When questioned by Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries over the FEC filings, the duo called the them “fake news.” Silk, whose real name is Rochelle Richardson, went on to suggest the Trump campaign may have mistakenly recorded the payment, adding that Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law, reimbursed them for a Trump campaign tour.

https://twitter.com/BookofJonah/status/989548691500417024

“We are familiar with that particular lie, we can see that you do look at fake news,” Richardson said regarding the FEC receipt.

“I’m just trying to figure out who is lying here,” Jeffries replied.

The two were invited by House Republicans to testify about Facebook’s alleged bias against conservatives. Earlier this month, the duo’s videos were flagged as “unsafe” by Facebook. The social media giant later said the message was an error.

“Subtle and slowly Facebook used one mechanism at a time to diminish reach by restricting our page so that our 1.2 million followers would not see our content, thus silencing our conservative voices,” they said in their testimony. “When we reached out to Facebook for an explanation, they gave us the run around.”

But it isn’t only conservatives who have felt the squeeze from Facebook’s algorithm tweaks. Speaking to CBS News, New York University’s Ari Waldman says Facebook’s recent algorithm change that allows users to see more content from family and friends has impacted both liberal and conservative brands.

“The result is that a lot of content gets filtered out, but no more so from the right than from the left,” Waldman said.

Featured image via @BookofJonah

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.