Monday, June 20, 2022

GOP presses for truth on Biden misinformation spy shop

GOP presses for truth on Biden misinformation spy shop

Several Republican senators pressed for a hearing on President Joe Biden’s “Truth Ministry” on Tuesday after new documents revealed that it planned to spy on the public and even included a “domestic terrorism branch” to look into election “misinformation.”

In a letter, the senators asked the Democratic chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), to call a hearing and demanded that Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas address earlier statements that the new agency was not operating and not in the spying business.

“The American public deserves transparency and honest answers to important questions about the true nature and purpose of the Disinformation Governance Board and it is clear that Secretary Mayorkas has not provided them — to the public or this committee,” said the letter signed by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rand Paul (R-KY), James Lankford (R-OK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Josh Hawley (R-MO).

Hawley and Sen. Chuck Grassley recently said that Mayorkas has misled them about the new agency, according to reporting from the Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy.

In the new letter, the lawmakers presented details from a whistleblower that the board had a broad agenda to look into statements that the Democratic administration doesn’t like.

They provided “talking points” from the hand-picked ex-director, Nina Jankowicz, dumped after embarrassing old social media posts were revealed.

“Talking points prepared by Ms. Jankowicz, the Board’s then-Executive Director appear to show that the department does in fact monitor American citizens and that the board’s work is concentrated on domestic threats. She writes that the board’s initial work plan includes working with ‘industry on countering MDM [mis-, dis-, or mal-information] related to domestic violent extremism’ further noting that the department recently established a ‘domestic terrorism branch’ within the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis — the Department’s office responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence,” said the letter.

The full letter is below:

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