Disinformation Inc: Biden administration misses GOP deadline for “censorship” records
- May 12, 2023
EXCLUSIVE — The State Department has failed to meet a House GOP-set deadline to provide a trove of records related to the Biden administration’s ties to “censorship” and purported “disinformation” tracking, the Washington Examiner has learned.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee demanded on May 1 that the Global Engagement Center, a State Department-housed interagency, turn over documents on its efforts to fight “disinformation” and “misinformation,” including through lucrative grants. But the GEC, which has come under fire from Republicans for bankrolling groups like the Global Disinformation Index that blacklist conservative media, has missed the deadline.
“State’s failure to meet the deadline continues a troubling Biden administration practice of noncompliance with congressional oversight and a lax attitude about its obligation to respond,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the committee’s chairman who led the May 1 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, told the Washington Examiner. “The Foreign Affairs Committee will keep this in mind as it considers any and all State Department-requested legislative proposals.”
America First Legal is one of several groups, like Protect the Public’s Trust led by ex-Trump Education Department official Michael Chamberlain, that has launched Freedom of Information Act request investigations in order to obtain State Department records on efforts to thwart alleged disinformation.