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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – A group of Republican senators penned a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Monday demanding any documentation about the beginnings of the recently paused Disinformation Government Board (DGB).
The letter, signed by Senators Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, Rand Paul, James Lankford, and Ron Johnson, demands transparency on the part of DHS with regard to the founding of the DGB, stating “We are therefore demanding transparency into the Department’s decision-making process so that we can learn why the Department even thought of creating a disinformation board would be a good idea.”
The letter also addresses concerns about Mayorkas’ choice for Nina Jankowicz to head the DGB, citing Jankowicz’s “long history of partisan statements,” referencing testimony Mayorkas gave before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Jankowicz, a long-time critic of free speech, publicly dismissed Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation and has stated that she believed that the discredited Steele dossier, which allegedly tied former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to Russia, to be real.
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Jankowicz has also praised Twitter for its repressive handling of conservative speech, and said that in light of “abuse” women face online, that she “shudder[s] to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities.”
The senators list six demands of Mayorkas in their letter:
- Written or recorded communications concerning the formation of the DGB;
- The agenda or minutes from any meeting at which the DGB’s formation was discussed;
- Any legal review to determine whether the activities of the DGB would be authorized under the Constitution;
- Any communications or records about the people that would be recruited to serve on the DGB;
- Any communications about the appointment of the Executive Director of the DGB; and
- Any communications with the White House about the formation of the DGB or appointments of officials to serve on the DGB.
The letter also requests the disclosure of any documentation dealing with the requests made in it, the name of each document, the document’s date, its custodian, a summary of it, and the reason as to why the document was withheld from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
The DGB, set up by the DHS last month, was immediately met with criticism from conservatives, who dubbed it the “Ministry of Truth,” referring to George Orwell’s 1984. The DHS put the DGB on pause last week following backlash and has pledged to reinstate it pending a review. The review is set to last 75 days.
The DHS, discussing the DGB in a statement, said that “The board has been grossly and intentionally mischaracterized: it was never about censorship or policing speech in any manner. It was designed to ensure we fulfill our mission to protect the homeland, while protecting core constitutional rights.”
The DHS did not immediately respond to LifeSite’s request for comment.
PERMANENTLY DISMANTLE THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH Contact Congress TODAY.