Jim Jordan subpoenas former head of DHS disinformation board


Home Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Monday subpoenaed a former Biden administration official who oversaw the Division of Homeland Safety’s disinformation board.

Jordan, R-Ohio, known as on Nina Jankowicz to look earlier than the committee for an April 10 deposition as Republicans scrutinize the short-lived entity that drew widespread GOP criticism after it launched final yr.

The subpoena comes after Jankowicz “ignored voluntary requests for a transcribed interview,” Jordan stated, citing two letters final yr and three letters since he took the helm of the committee in January.

On Twitter, Jankowicz stated she would adjust to the subpoena, and defended her work on the company.

“I’ll fortunately testify to the reality of the Board beneath oath: That it was a working group meant to handle disinformation that endangered People’ security, and that — due to the Republican Celebration’s irresponsible lies about it — our democracy is much less safe,” she tweeted.

NBC Information has reached out to Jankowicz for additional remark.

In a brand new letter to Jankowicz on Monday, Jordan stated the committee is contemplating potential laws that will prohibit establishing boards just like the one at DHS, including that Jankowicz was “uniquely located” to offer info to these ends.

Jankowicz resigned in Could after the board was paused amid criticism from congressional Republicans, who sought to cross laws to deliver an finish to the board. DHS shuttered this system in August.

In an MSNBC interview after her resignation, Jankowicz argued that the board had been mischaracterized by Republicans and stated its position was to battle disinformation whereas defending People’ freedom of speech, privateness and civil liberties.

Jordan on Monday additionally subpoenaed Chip Slaven, the previous interim govt director and CEO of the Nationwide College Boards Affiliation, and Viola Garcia, the group’s former president.

Each Slaven and Garcia had been concerned in requesting federal legislation enforcement help in response to heated and typically violent native faculty board conferences.

In a September 2021 letter to President Joe Biden, they stated that public faculties and schooling leaders had been “beneath a direct risk,” whereas calling on federal legislation enforcement for help in dealing with “the rising variety of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring throughout the nation.”

Weeks later, Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to carry technique classes with legislation enforcement to handle threats to high school board members, academics and different public faculty employees.

Jordan beforehand subpoenaed the Justice Division, FBI and the Division of Schooling and FBI director Chris Wray over their actions relating to high school boards.

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