House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Former DHS ‘Disinformation’ Czar Nina Jankowicz
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The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee on Monday subpoenaed the former “disinformation” czar of the Department of Homeland Security for testimony.
Committee chairman and Republican representative Jim Jordan ordered the appearance of Nina Jankowicz for a deposition, which is scheduled for April 1o, according to documents obtained by CNN. Jankowicz briefly served as head of the department’s Disinformation Governance Board before it was disbanded — three weeks after its announcement — prompting her to resign.
The subpoena indicates the GOP majority on the panel likely plans to grill Jankowicz about her involvement on the board, which was designed to combat so-called disinformation in American society. Jordan had previously asked Jankowicz to provide a transcribed interview, CNN reported.
The briefness of the board’s life likely owed to the blistering criticism it and Jankowicz received from the media. Some pundits exposed Jankowicz’s questionable fact-finding record, which including her erroneous labeling of the now-confirmed Hunter Biden laptop story as a “Russian influence op.”
Last May, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas insisted to CNN’s Dana Bash that the board would not surveil American citizens and that Jankowicz would be politically neutral. Jankowicz donated to President Biden’s campaign during the 2020 cycle and campaigned for Hillary Clinton.
“Eminently qualified, a renowned expert in the field of disinformation,” Mayorkas said of the board’s appointee.
Mayorkas also came under scrutiny for haphazardly communicating the board’s function and objectives. He stated that it would lack “operational authority or capability,” yet he told Bash it would assess disinformation threats from various sources and “disseminate those best practices to the operators.” The identities and responsibilities of the “operators” were not specified.
“It works to ensure that the way in which we address threats, the connectivity between threats and acts of violence are addressed without infringing on free speech, protecting civil rights and civil liberties, the right of privacy,” Mayorkas said of the board’s purpose.
In August, the Homeland Security Advisory Council concluded in a report that “there is no need for a separate Disinformation Governance Board.”
