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Because he wasn't supposed to be vetting them. Somehow he managed to insert himself into the process, against the wishes of Elon, and began slow walking and obfuscating access to the documents Elon wanted the journalist to have.
Elon called him in to explain his actions, and in Elon's own words, he found the explanations "unconvincing".
It also seems incredibly likely, given Jim Baker's placement in Russiagate, that he was one of the backdoor channels political operatives used to have Twitter censor things. So him "vetting" the information that gets released to journalist covering that connection is highly suspect. Doubly so when he inserts himself into that process completely unbidden.
This doesn't make sense, Jim Baker has been the Deputy General Counsel and Vice President of Legal for Twitter since June 2020, he's absolutely supposed to vet records that will be released to an outside party. That's basically foundational to his job as general counsel for a company. Some of the things a general counsel would want to review are relatively banal (e.g. employee SSN) and others would be making sure that a disclosure doesn't violate an NDA, disclose trade secrets, or otherwise runs afoul of the overbearing National Security Letter gag orders.
The point of a legal department is to protect a company from legal liability, and releasing these files without any lawyer reviewing the disclosures would have been an idiotic move. So unless Musk specifically asked to release the files without involving legal, it's presumed that the legal department would do its job. That Taibbi seems surprised by this makes me think he doesn't understand what a general counsel's job is.
Musk claims that Baker's explanations were "unconvincing" but why should we take him at his word? He could easily tell us what the reasons are. I think it's plausible that Jim Baker would at least have a strong motive to conceal things that would impugn the FBI which is his previous employer, but motive is not the same thing as commission. If Baker did indeed conceal things from the reveal, then Musk can just tell us. If Baker did indeed have unconvincing reasons for being involved, then Must can just tell us. The fact that he's light on the details makes me think Musk's reasons for firing him may have been more personal than anything else.
Aaand this is exactly the kind of response that makes me lose faith political debate in good faith can ever happen.
Nope, if your boss fires you, we can assume it's not because you weren't doing your job the way he wanted you to. The burden of proof is now on you that Baker was actually doing everything as was expected of him.
I think you meant "we can assume it's because you weren't doing your job the way he wanted you to". If so then yes, I agree, but that would be an unremarkable observation. The real question is what exactly Elon Musk was upset about that led to this guy's firing. Musk has fired Twitter developers that criticized him or talked back at him. It's his right to fire them, but it comes across as petty and vindictive. Because he has a very recent history of this kind of retribution against his employees, I don't think it's reasonable for me to assume that Musk fired Baker for lofty high-brow reasons. It could be true, but I don't have evidence to believe that at this point.
Funny how the burden of proof is never on you.
Is there any evidence that Baker was fired for petty reasons, did he even claim to be? Is there any evidence he inserted himself in the process in good faith? It could be true but I don't have evidence that at this point.
I'm not sure how you misread what I wrote to this degree. The post you are directly responding to explicitly said that it's possible that Musk fired Baker for lofty high-brow reasons. It's perfectly reasonable to place the burden of proof on the one making an assertion and my assertion in this case is "I don't have evidence to believe that". What objection do you have with my assertion?
You are instead asking me to provide evidence that Baker was fired for petty reasons, or that Baker acted in good faith. I never asserted either positions! I don't know if either of those things are true! How many different ways do I need to say this?
The objection I have is that despite inserting a thousand technicalities you can hide behind when called out, we're not in court, and I don't need to let you hide behind these technicalities, and pretend you didn't just say what you clearly said. The content of your comments clearly says that "it doesn't make sense" for Baker to not be involved. You're wrong, it does, and you have not provided any evidence for that not being the case.
Yes my assertion is indeed "It doesn't make sense to think the general counsel of a company is not supposed to be vetting files before they are disclosed to an outside party" and I stand by that position. You saying that I'm wrong is not enough to make it so. Can you actually explain how I'm off-base? As best as I can tell so far the issue seems to be that I'm not credulously accepting whatever Elon Musk said. I already explained why I'm suspicious of his claims, which part of my argument do you object to?
Do lawyers have any professional standards for conflicts of interest?
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