Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) is demanding answers from the State Department over its crafting of an internal memo that appeared to try to link the congressman to a Russian state-controlled media outlet.
In a letter on Monday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the House Republican asked for an explanation for the “sloppy and hypocritical lie” that the State Department included in leaked internal documents reported on by the New York Post. The documents were 2023 press guidance that the State Department circulated on how to respond to reporting by the Washington Examiner and “Twitter Files” journalist Matt Taibbi on the Biden administration’s Global Engagement Center funding apparent “censorship” groups and efforts.
The State Department, in the 2023 memo, cited a variation of a quote from Banks on apparent state-funded censorship that was first provided to the Washington Examiner in February 2023. That story focused on the Global Engagement Center funding the Global Disinformation Index, a British group that works to defund right-leaning media outlets.
But the State Department had cited what appeared to be a Russian-translated version of the Banks quote in a Russian news outlet, which the New York Post said suggests “Banks’ defense of the First Amendment was being linked to Russian influence operations — and to downplay the thrust of the Washington Examiner reports.”
“In February 2023, Gabe Kaminsky at the Washington Examiner published a series of articles outlining the State Department’s funding of a ‘disinformation’-related non-governmental organization called the Global Disinformation Index,” Banks told Blinken, noting that “GDI intended to convince advertisers to blacklist the news organizations it had deemed guilty of spreading disinformation.”
“In response to Mr. Kaminsky’s reporting, the State Department sent out press guidance defending its attempted suppression of U.S. news organizations,” Banks continued in the letter. “That guidance misleadingly changes a quote that I sent to Gabe Kaminsky and the Washington Examiner criticizing the GEC. The intentional misquotation gives the impression that I had been speaking with a Russian propaganda outlet.”
Banks is asking Blinken for responses to several questions by Oct. 1, expressing concern about the State Department aiming to “purposefully spread disinformation about a U.S. lawmaker.”
“This is a sloppy and hypocritical lie and it is typical of the Biden-Harris State Department’s repeated attacks on the First Amendment and Americans’ free speech rights,” Banks continued.
His letter asked why the State Department’s press bureau used “a secondhand and incorrect quotation from a foreign propaganda outlet instead of the accurate quotation from the Washington Examiner.”
It also asked whether the State Department believes the Washington Examiner, the New York Post, and other outlets on GDI’s blacklist are guilty of spreading “disinformation.”
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“How often does the State Department attack elected members of Congress in its press guidance?” Banks asked. “Does the State Department review its own press guidance for misinformation or disinformation?”
The State Department declined to comment.
