GOP Senators Say DHS Sec Mayorkas Misled Them Under Oath About “Disinformation Board”

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has been accused of misleading top Republican senators about the purposes of the controversial Disinformation Governance Board.

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Josh Hawley argue the board was designed with more power than the top Biden official admitted during testimony.

Mayorkas repeatedly downplayed the power and role of the group during congressional testimony, telling the Senate Homeland Security Committee last month it was “established with the explicit goal of ensuring that the protection of free speech, privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties is incorporated into all of the department’s disinformation work.” He contended that “we’re not the truth police” and said the board “does not have any operational authority or capability.”

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The board was at least temporarily put on hold following the controversy surrounding Director Nina Jankowicz, who later resigned. She has a history of either labeling claims as disinformation that were later found to have credibility or giving credence to assertions that were later discredited. She immediately cast doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop story, touted British ex-spy Christopher Steele as a disinformation expert, downplayed Iranian election meddling aimed at hurting Trump in the 2020 election, critiqued the media’s promotion of the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis, pushed debunked claims of Trump-Russia collusion, and more.

The GOP senators revealed that Robert Silvers, the undersecretary for the office of strategy, policy, and plans, and acting Principal Deputy General Counsel Jennifer Daskal sent Mayorkas a letter on Jan. 31, 2022, detailing the newly formed “Disinformation Governance Board Charter” because “on September 29, 2021, you directed headquarters and Component leadership to pursue a governance board model to coordinate efforts to counter mis-, dis-, and mal-information.”

The charter indicated the board would play a big role at DHS.

“The Board will serve as the central forum in the Department to ensure consistent governance and coordination of such efforts, and adherence to applicable constitutional, statutory, and regulatory authorities and obligations,” the charter read, adding, “The Board will serve as the departmental forum for governance of DHS policies, plans, procedures, standards, and activities pertaining to MDM that threatens homeland security. As such, all DHS-wide or Component-specific proposals for funding related to efforts to counter MDM should be appropriately coordinated with the Board, including in advance of submitting any final funding proposals.”

The charter was signed by Mayorkas on Feb. 24.

“If your intent was to combat misinformation, online or in the government, why on God’s green earth would you nominate someone who is a human geyser of misinformation?” Hawley asked Mayorkas last month.

The DHS chief said he was not aware of Jankowicz’s comments about Hunter Biden and Steele when he hired her, and he also said he did not hold deliberations about her hiring.

“If the (former) Executive Director of the DGB is incapable of determining what is and is not disinformation, how could the DGB ever have expected to function properly under her leadership?” Grassley and Hawley told Mayorkas in their new letter.

Grassley and Hawley also obtained draft briefing notes prepared for a scheduled April 28, 2022, meeting between Silvers and Twitter executives Nick Pickles, the head of policy, and Yoel Roth, the head of site integrity. The senators said the notes showed DHS planned to “operationalize” the board.

The DHS briefing notes state that Silvers would meet with Pickles and Roth “on public-private partnerships, MDM, and countering DVE [domestic violent extremism].” The notes state that “this meeting is an opportunity to discuss operationalizing public-private partnerships between DHS and Twitter, as well as inform Twitter executives about DHS work on MDM, Including the creation of the Disinformation Governance Board and its analytic exchange.”

The notes indicate that “Nick and Yoel both know DGB Executive Director Nina Jankowicz” and that Silvers should “propose that Twitter become involved in Disinformation Governance Board Analytic Exchanges on Domestic Violent Extremism and Irregular Migration.”

Grassley and Hawley wrote: “Collectively, whistleblower allegations and the documents we’ve reviewed raise concerns that DHS could be seeking an active role in coordinating the censorship of viewpoints that it determines, according to an unknown standard, to be ‘MDM’ by enlisting the help of social media companies and big tech.”

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Mayorkas announced last month that the board’s work was being paused pending a review by certain members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

A co-leader of the review is former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who also attempted to claim in late November 2020 that the Hunter Biden laptop story was some sort of Russian intelligence operation.