{"id":219,"date":"2026-06-01T22:45:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\/?p=219"},"modified":"2026-06-01T22:45:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:45:38","slug":"why-did-the-fbi-want-dilbert-creator-scott-adams-twitter-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\/?p=219","title":{"rendered":"Why did the FBI Want Dilbert Creator Scott Adams’ Twitter Data?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Most Americans knew the late Scott Adams for <\/span>Dilbert<\/span><\/i>, his beloved comic strip about an office worker and his dimwitted colleagues. Later in life, Adams became known as a kind of <\/span>right-wing shock jockey<\/span>. But the cartoonist caught the FBI’s attention for something a little bit different: the sex crimes investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R\u2013Fl.) and a bizarre blackmail scheme that grew out of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Trump Broke the Law When He Slapped His Name on the Kennedy Center, a Federal Judge Says<\/a><\/p>\n

The FBI <\/span>released<\/span> its files on Adams last week, five months after his death, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from <\/span>Reason<\/span><\/i>. The records include the heavily redacted results of a background check and a request to Twitter\u2014the social media network later renamed X\u2014to preserve Adams’ account data, including his private messages.<\/span><\/p>\n

The investigation into Adams seems to have begun in the spring of 2021, when he was entangled in the Gaetz scandal. On March 30, 2021, <\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/i> reported<\/span> that Gaetz was under federal investigation for having sex with an underage teenager. Gaetz <\/span>claimed<\/span> that he was actually the <\/span>victim<\/span><\/i> of blackmail, and the federal investigation focused on the extortionists.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three days later, <\/span>The American Conservative<\/span><\/i> published<\/span> screenshots of a text conversation between Adams and Jake Novak, a former journalist who was then working on the media staff of the Israeli consulate in New York. (The Israeli consulate <\/span>later told<\/span> Politico<\/span><\/i> that Novak’s involvement in the Gaetz case “was not in any way, shape or form a part of his role at the consulate.”)<\/span><\/p>\n

Novak wrote to Adams that the investigation into Gaetz “is screwing up my efforts to free Bob Levinson,” a former FBI agent who disappeared in 2013 while conducting an <\/span>unauthorized mission<\/span> for the CIA in Iran. “Gaetz’s dad was secretly finding [sic] us. So I’m very much wanting this to be untrue. I’ve got a commando team leader friend of mine nervously waiting for wire transfers to clear,” Novak explained. He claimed that Gaetz’s extortion claim “burned” Bob Kent, a private investigator involved in the <\/span>efforts to free<\/span> Levinson.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those efforts were unlikely to succeed. The federal government <\/span>declared<\/span> in 2020 that Levinson had died in Iranian captivity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more How To Win a Trade War? Lose Less Than Your Opponents.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a CNN <\/span>interview<\/span>, Kent acknowledged that he asked Gaetz’s father for money to help rescue Levinson, but denied making any “threats” or “demands.” A few months later, Florida businessman Stephen Alford\u2014whom prosecutors called Kent’s “<\/span>associate<\/span>“\u2014pleaded guilty to making “<\/span>materially false promises<\/span>” of a pardon for Gaetz in exchange for funding the Levinson mission. Kent and Novak were not charged with crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Years later, a congressional investigation concluded that Gaetz had indeed paid a 17-year-old girl for sex, though the federal government declined to prosecute him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adams never quite gave a satisfying explanation for why he was involved in the case. “Jake [Novak] and I shared an interest in the mechanics of persuasion, and in interesting business\/political stories in general. Most often the stuff with a persuasion or Israel angle. That was our initial connection\u2026people often tell me their scoops before they hit the news just to build credibility. Might have been that,” he <\/span>told<\/span> Politico<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The FBI files do little to shed light on that mystery, but they do put some of Adams’ old comments in a new light. “Do you think they looked at my personal data because I ever had a conversation with somebody from another country? Probably. And I can’t find that out, can I? If I sued the government, could I find out if they looked at my data? I could FOIA the FBI,” he said in a <\/span>2022 livestream<\/span>. It turns out that the answer to these questions was yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Surging Antisemitism Threatens Jews and America<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adams caught the FBI\u2019s attention over a bizarre scheme involving Matt Gaetz, a CIA agent held captive in Iran, and a Florida fraudster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foia"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy did the FBI Want Dilbert Creator Scott Adams' Twitter Data? - Pioneer Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\/?p=219\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why did the FBI Want Dilbert Creator Scott Adams' Twitter Data? - Pioneer Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Adams caught the FBI\u2019s attention over a bizarre scheme involving Matt Gaetz, a CIA agent held captive in Iran, and a Florida fraudster.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\/?p=219\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pioneer Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-01T22:45:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=219#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=219\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e60d53b4e81d520eba9c5a81b6b7778a\"},\"headline\":\"Why did the FBI Want Dilbert Creator Scott Adams’ Twitter Data?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-01T22:45:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=219\"},\"wordCount\":663,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=219#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/9ecbc7e82603557b347c92f3304ee2dc.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"FOIA\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=219#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=219\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pioneerrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=219\",\"name\":\"Why did the FBI Want Dilbert Creator Scott Adams' Twitter Data? 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