House Subpoenas Owner Of Site Where El Paso Shooter Allegedly Posted Manifesto

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., speaks during a news conference in the Senate Radio-TV Gallery studio on cyber security on Thursday, April 30, 2009.
UNITED STATES - APRIL 30: Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., speaks during a news conference in the Senate Radio-TV Gallery studio on cyber security on Thursday, April 30, 2009. (Photo By Bill Clark/Roll Call/Getty Images)
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The House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday subpoenaed Jim Watkins, the owner of 8chan, the website where the suspected El Paso shooter allegedly posted a hateful anti-Hispanic manifesto.

Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and ranking member Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) announced the subpoena issued to the 8chan site owner in a joint statement.

“At least three acts of deadly white supremacist extremist violence have been linked to 8chan in the last six months,” they said. “We have questions on what is being done to counter this trend so we can be sure it is being properly addressed.”

Thompson and Rogers said Watkins’ testimony is “critical” to combating extremist content online.

Watkins currently lives in the Philippines.

The committee sent a letter to Watkins in early August requesting that he testify in front of Congress after law enforcement began investigating the massacre in El Paso, Texas as a hate crime.

8chan, which has been taken offline, was notorious for being a breeding pool of white supremacist content.

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  1. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    All these Uber-patriotic first-amendment-loving americans who just happen to reside outside the US. Coincidence, I’m sure.

  2. If they are going to wade into 8chan, I hope they have all their shots up to date.

  3. Depends. Does the Country they are residing in have an extradition treaty with the US?

    Although extradition can be a sensitive subject especially on the issue of sovereignty, there are provisions that govern the extradition process, such as the definition of what constitutes extraditable offenses, and extraterritorial offenses.

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