The Department of Justice announced on May 13 that it has settled a lawsuit alleging the Biden administration pressured Twitter into silencing an American citizen over his COVID vaccine commentary. The case, Berenson v. Biden No. 25-2709, resolves the federal government’s role in the litigation while leaving claims against other defendants intact.
Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter turned independent journalist, alleged that Biden-era officials worked alongside Pfizer-linked figures to get him deplatformed from Twitter in 2021. The settlement provides Berenson with $150,000 and avoids further litigation in the Second Circuit where his appeal was pending.
The DOJ press release framed the settlement squarely within President Donald Trump’s executive order titled Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. That order stated that the previous administration had trampled free speech rights by pressuring third parties, including social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or suppress speech the government did not approve.
Three senior DOJ officials emphasized that the federal government has no business leaning on private platforms to silence viewpoints it dislikes. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward described the prior administration’s actions as viewpoint discrimination. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate stated that unlawful government coercion of social media companies has no place under the Constitution. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called the settlement a milestone in the free-speech fight and asserted that the proper answer to unwanted speech is more speech.
The settlement does not constitute a court ruling on the merits or admit liability by the federal government. Instead, it acknowledges that these allegations were serious enough to resolve and that the current administration views the underlying conduct as incompatible with the First Amendment.
Federal defendants agreed to pay Alex Berenson $150,000 to settle the federal portion of his lawsuit before the Second Circuit could review his appeal. The settlement resolves the federal claims but preserves Berenson’s lawsuits against remaining defendants, including Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla and Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb, who also served as President Trump’s first-term FDA commissioner.
Berenson described the payment as useful for continuing his appeal rather than life-changing. He alleged that federal officials and Pfizer-linked figures conspired to pressure Twitter into deplatforming him in 2021 over COVID vaccine skepticism. Previously, he forced Twitter to reinstate his account and obtained internal emails through a separate settlement with the platform.
Those internal communications became critical evidence in Berenson’s lawsuit against federal officials, including claims involving Biden White House adviser Andy Slavitt and communications explaining why Berenson had not been removed from Twitter. The internal communications Berenson secured during his earlier legal battle formed the evidentiary backbone of his claims against both federal officials and Pfizer-connected defendants. With the federal portion now resolved, those private-party claims remain active.
Berenson has stated that this settlement is a waypoint, not a finish line. His remaining claims against Albert Bourla and Scott Gottlieb center on their roles in pressuring Twitter to remove his account, and these claims have not been settled, dismissed, or adjudicated.
