This is part of a Washington Examiner series on self-styled ‘disinformation’ tracking groups that are blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media. Here is where you can read other stories in the series.
EXCLUSIVE — Following multiple Washington Examiner “Disinformation Inc.” reports, a handful of congressional committees are investigating or mulling inquiries into the State Department bankrolling a “disinformation” tracking group that has been secretly blacklisting conservative news outlets.
The State Department-backed Global Engagement Center and National Endowment for Democracy granted roughly $665,000 combined between 2020 and 2021 to the Global Disinformation Index, records show. Now, several committees led by Republicans are launching investigations or considering next steps to obtain information regarding this funding, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, has continued to investigate Twitter’s suppression of a 2020 New York Post story based on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. As part of Comer’s inquiry into alleged online censorship, the congressman sent a letter to the State Department on Thursday demanding documents and a briefing in connection to federal funds flowing to GDI.
“American taxpayer dollars should never be used to suppress our First Amendment rights protected in the U.S. Constitution,” Comer told the Washington Examiner on Thursday. “The fact that the State Department allowed federal funds to flow to foreign organizations who seek to blacklist American news organizations goes against our core values. Secretary [Antony] Blinken must provide the American people with answers about this abuse of taxpayer dollars.”
Comer has requested the State Department turn over documents and communications by March 9 in relation to the funding of GDI — which has blacklisted the Washington Examiner and claimed the 10 “riskiest” news outlets are the American Spectator, Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, One America News, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason, and the New York Post.
The congressman also wants his committee to be briefed by the State Department no later than March 2. The department has said that its grants to GDI through the Global Engagement Center were to fight purported disinformation overseas, such as in East Asia, and that the GEC doesn’t engage in content moderation on social media.
Still, Republicans and watchdogs have argued that money is “fungible” and said the government funding GDI at all presents a problem.
“Though the agencies can deny they are funding this activity, money is fungible, and these organizations can claim the government’s stamp of approval for their operations,” Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, a watchdog group that has filed several public records requests to the government over GDI funding, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
House Foreign Affairs Committee
The House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), is another body investigating the State Department’s ties to GDI.
“Last year, under tremendous bipartisan pressure, I refused to reauthorize the Global Engagement Center because such a step seemed premature,” said McCaul on Feb. 9. “The most recent allegations, if verified, confirm the need for a strict accounting of all U.S. taxpayer funds going to the GEC.”
The committee maintains oversight of the State Department, as well as foreign assistance, international law, and public diplomacy. It was briefed on Feb. 16 by the NED on funding to the Global Disinformation Index, the Washington Examiner reported.
Roughly six NED representatives and three congressional committee representatives for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and one other committee, attended the meeting, said a congressional source. The source noted that staffers told the NED that money is “fungible” regardless of the grants being allocated for website “risk ratings” to be fed to advertising companies in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere overseas.
Shortly after this meeting, on Monday, the Washington Examiner reported that the NED announced it would no longer provide future grants to GDI. The nonprofit group did so “to avoid the perception that NED is engaged in any work domestically, directly or indirectly,” an NED spokeswoman said.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will be briefed by the Global Engagement Center on GDI funding sometime in March, a congressional source close to the matter told the Washington Examiner. After that point, the committee will mull the next steps, the source said.
Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
The newly created “weaponization” subcommittee, which launched as a result of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) concessions to House Republicans to earn the gavel, is also a body investigating the blacklists. The subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is also chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
“This issue is obviously concerning to chairman Jordan, and the weaponization committee will look into the government’s role in the suppression of the First Amendment,” Russell Dye, a spokesman for Jordan, told the Washington Examiner on Feb. 16.
The subcommittee has been tasked with investigating matters related to “the collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of information on U.S. citizens by executive branch agencies, including whether such efforts are illegal, unconstitutional, or otherwise unethical,” according to congressional records. It will issue a report with findings by Jan. 2, 2025, and terminate 30 days after the report.
“I’m going to focus my time on the weaponization subcommittee on these matters. This direct assault on the First Amendment and the ways in which the exquisite powers of the government has been merged with the capabilities of technology to constrain rights that Americans have long held close and cherished,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a subcommittee member, told the Washington Examiner on Feb. 16.
Gaetz said at the time that subpoenas are not out of the question, adding that the subcommittee may have to use “unusual” force rather than “traditional tools” given how “the Biden administration has been recalcitrant to the normal tools of oversight.”
“I think this will be something the weaponization subcommittee will look at,” added Gaetz. “We work in very close concert with the Oversight Committee.”
Other committee investigations
Two bodies that could also launch or coordinate with others on investigations into the blacklists include the House Judiciary Committee and the House Appropriations Committee, according to three congressional sources familiar with the matter.
Under Jordan’s leadership, Judiciary has sought to investigate government influence in the private sector. On Feb. 15, the committee subpoenaed the chief executives of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft to obtain “documents and communications relating to the federal government’s reported collusion with Big Tech to suppress free speech.”
Microsoft notably subscribed in the past to the Global Disinformation Index’s “dynamic exclusion list” and participated in the blacklisting of conservative websites, according to data leaked to the Washington Examiner by ad industry executives.
However, the company announced on Feb. 11 it was suspending its relationship with GDI and launching an internal investigation. This means conservative websites that Microsoft previously flagged as “false/misleading” or “reprehensible/offensive,” such as Townhall, no longer have negative classifications and could gain access to critical ad dollars.
The House Appropriations Committee, which oversees federal spending, counts Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) as a new member. Clyde told the Washington Examiner on Feb. 13 that “government-by-proxy censorship” is “unacceptable.”
“Taxpayer dollars have no place funding anti-speech organizations that are actively waging war against conservative outlets,” said the congressman, who, according to a source close to his office, is in talks with other members about holding the State Department accountable.
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“As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I look forward to conducting oversight into this funding to ensure Americans’ First Amendment rights are respected and protected,” Clyde previously told the Washington Examiner.
The House Appropriations Committee did not reply to a request for comment.
