It's someone who I mostly learned/knew through social media and am friendly with, even though we've never worked together and maybe have met in person a couple times at conferences.

I wasn't sure if you were disclosing the relationship because of the nature of your comment or if you were just bragging about knowing them. It is/was odd.

My opinion is that he’s an expert on the legislation, but I wanted to be clear that I could be biased :)

Haha ok, as an outsider reading that it came off as a brag and I was confused. That's why I asked.