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The House Appropriations Committee moved to block State Department funding for an international nonprofit that accuses Americans and U.S. organizations of being “opponents of Ukraine.”
The move comes one day after Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., sent a letter to top House appropriators asking to end U.S. support for the Ukrainian reporting nonprofit called the DATA Journalism Agency, also known as TEXTY.
The TEXTY list includes 77 organizations and 388 individuals, including former President Donald Trump and 115 Republican House members, it labels enemies of Ukraine. This includes The Heritage Foundation and its president, Kevin Roberts.
“I was just designated an ‘opponent of Ukraine,’ after being sanctioned by the Russian regime,” Banks said in a public statement.
The Russian government sanctioned Banks in April 2022.
Two State Department agencies partnered with the DATA Journalism Agency: the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.
During a full committee markup on Wednesday of the fiscal year 2025 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs funding bill, House Republicans on the committee passed a provision to prohibit funding for TEXTY.
“I’m not bothered by what foreign nations think of me. But it’s shameful for our agencies to be using Hoosiers’ tax dollars to collaborate with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate U.S. citizens and lawmakers,” Banks continued. “I’d like to thank the Republicans on the Appropriations Committee for defunding any such work with the DATA Journalism Agency.”
The Banks letter on Tuesday went to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
Like any budget bill, the funding measure has to be approved by the House and a Democrat-controlled Senate before going to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The post House Appropriators Block State Department Money to Organization Calling Americans ‘Opponents of Ukraine’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is urging Congress to prevent the State Department from working with foreign organizations that “encourage the harassment of Americans” after a Ukraine-based outlet listed U.S. organizations and individuals it accused of impeding assistance to Ukraine.
The Heritage Foundation, which founded The Daily Signal in 2014, appears among the organizations on the list, and so does its president, Kevin D. Roberts.
The Ukraine-based media outlet the DATA Journalism Agency, also known as TEXTY, published a report titled “Roller Coaster: From Trumpists to Communists.” The report lists forces in the U.S. impeding aid to Ukraine and how they do it. The list includes 77 organizations and 388 individuals, including former President Donald Trump and 116 Republican House members.
Two State Department agencies partnered with the DATA Journalism Agency, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.
“According to the report, the individuals on the list ‘oppose supporting Ukraine,’ and many ‘echo key messages of Russian propaganda aimed at depriving Ukrainians of the ability to defend themselves,’” Banks said in a letter Tuesday. He sent the letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Chair Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
Banks added that another Ukrainian organization partnering with the State Department, known as Myrotvorets, also maintained a database of alleged enemies of Ukraine.
“Federal bureaucrats should not support or partner with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate and silence U.S. citizens and lawmakers,” Banks wrote. “I am urging the Appropriations Committee majority to support efforts in the Fiscal Year 2025 SFOPS bill to force the State Department and USAID to end all relations with foreign NGOs like TEXTY that seek to silence the speech of Americans they dislike and to sway U.S. policymakers to serve their own interests.”
Banks also wrote to Roberts Tuesday as well as other individuals and entities that were on the list.
“The Appropriations Committee’s markup of its bill to fund the State Department and USAID during Fiscal Year 2025 is scheduled to take place tomorrow,” Banks added.
The post 2 Groups Accuse Americans of Being Enemies of Ukraine. A House Republican Wants State to Stop Working With Them. appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Prosecutors in the gun case against Hunter Biden attested to the authenticity of a laptop he left at a repair shop in 2019, and a jury convicted Biden on Tuesday in part based on that evidence, even though at least two polls suggested that constant denials that the laptop was his from Democrats, social media, and legacy media helped President Joe Biden get elected in 2020.
“This is not a point the news media wanted to acknowledge during trial coverage,” Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog, told The Daily Signal. “It was the shame of the liberal media since the FBI had the laptop all along.”
Graham was referring to the fact that the FBI was in possession of Hunter Biden’s laptop and knew it was his when the story of its existence broke in 2020.
Had a sizable number of Joe Biden’s supporters been aware of the authenticity of the laptop that suggested the elder Biden financially benefited from foreign dealings that his son was involved in, a late 2020 Media Research Center/Polling Company survey shows that then-incumbent President Donald Trump would have won the election with 289 electoral votes.
A TIPP Insights poll in 2022 also showed two-thirds of respondents believed the election would have turned out differently if the public had been more aware of the laptop contents. The survey was done after internal files from Twitter revealed the FBI’s efforts to block the story from getting out.
“We did the poll, and it does show that suppression of this story on Twitter and the suggestion that the New York Post wasn’t real news impacted the election based on people who might have voted for Trump or just not voted,” Graham said.
Prosecutors used the laptop, first reported on by the New York Post in 2020, in their case against Hunter Biden, who was found guilty Tuesday on three charges related to lying on a gun-purchase form about his drug addiction.
But during a 2020 presidential debate, then-candidate Joe Biden called the laptop—which documented Hunter Biden’s drug use and questionable foreign business deals and also implicated the elder Biden in those business deals—“Russian disinformation.”
Joe Biden’s claim was backed by 51 former intelligence officials who—at the behest of Biden campaign surrogate and now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken—signed an open letter alleging the laptop had the hallmarks of Russian disinformation.
The discovery of the laptop and its contents were largely suppressed on social media, and many large news organizations refused to cover the story.
“The irony to all of this is that liberals get upset when you say something is fake news or is biased. But that is precisely what they did with the New York Post story,” Graham said. “The liberal media says if you don’t believe us, you don’t believe in democracy.”
However, by mid-2022, most legacy media outlets, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, acknowledged the authenticity of the laptop. Yet before the Hunter Biden gun trial, the government had not formally acknowledged it.
In December 2022, TIPP Insights, a right-leaning polling outlet with a A+ rating from news and analysis website FiveThirtyEight, conducted a poll of 501 people and asked, “Would knowing the laptop contents were real and not ‘disinformation’ have changed your vote?”
Over one-quarter—or 28%—answered “Very likely.”
In late 2020, a Media Research Center/Polling Company survey of 1,750 self-described Biden voters showed that 45.1% did not know about Hunter Biden’s laptop and that 9.4% said had they known, they would have changed their votes from Biden to Trump, to a third-party candidate, or would not have voted at all.
The analysis of the survey results determined Trump would have won the election with 289 electoral votes. Both the Media Research Center and the Polling Company are right-leaning organizations,
In February 2023, the left-leaning Washington Post’s Fact Checker column by Glenn Kessler questioned the methodology and questions of the Media Research Center/Polling Company’s poll and gave “Two Pinocchios” to Republican lawmakers who cited the poll as evidence that the lack of media coverage influenced the election.
The emails on the laptop suggested that Joe Biden—despite his repeated denials—was personally involved in Hunter Biden’s business deals in China. There was also a reference to “10% for the big guy,” suggesting Joe Biden financially benefited from those business deals as well.
The post Hunter’s Laptop Helped Secure a Conviction. Its Suppression May Have Swung an Election. appeared first on The Daily Signal.
The FBI revoked the security clearance of an employee after asking colleagues questions–under threat of discipline–about his support for former President Donald Trump and views on the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a complaint to the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.
The employee attended the rally on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington before it turned into a riot, and reported his presence to the FBI the next day, according to the whistleblower advocacy group Empower Oversight, which issued a complaint to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on June 8, in a letter made public Monday night with the client’s name blacked out.
The complaint comes on the heels of the FBI reinstating the security clearance of whistleblower Marcus Allen, a former FBI staff operations specialist, after allegations of politicized retaliation.
The 12-year employee also volunteered to an FBI polygraph, in which the Office of Inspector General found “no deception” when he said he did not enter the Capitol or a restricted area.
In March 2022, then-FBI Executive Assistant Director Jennifer Leigh Moore suspended the employee’s security clearance, and made an indefinite suspension without pay. The employee then made confidentiality protected disclosures to the House Judiciary Committee that alleged politicization of the security clearance process.
“The FBI Security Division (“SecD”) improperly pursued a broad, sweeping investigation into our client’s political opinions, questioning other protected First Amendment activity and Second Amendment advocacy while off-duty,” Empowerment Oversight President Tristan Leavitt said in the cover letter of the complaint to Horowitiz, the inspector general.
Empower Oversight obtained the investigative files from the FBI. Leavitt said the “shocking documents” demonstrate the FBI Security Division’s “political bias and abuse of the security clearance process to purge the FBI of employees who expressed disfavored political views or concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine requirement.”
The FBI sent the former employee’s colleagues a questionnaire, asking such questions as whether the employee did “Vocalize support for President Trump,” “Vocalize objection to Covid-19 vaccination,” and “Vocalize intent to attend 01/06/2021.”
“Instead of limiting its investigation to legitimate issues, SecD [the FBI’s Security Division] acted as if support for President Trump, objecting to COVID-19 vaccinations, or lawfully attending a protest was the equivalent of being a member of Al Qaeda or the Chinese Communist Party,” the Empower Oversight complaint to the inspector general says. “The FBl’s intentions are made clear by the questions it chose to put in black and white on a government document.”
Whistleblowers and former FBI agents have come forward with stories about the FBI focusing on pro-life protesters, developing a “threat tag” to monitor parents who spoke up at school board meetings, and relying on the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left organization that brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations “hate groups,” putting them on a map with the Ku Klux Klan.
The FBI’s Richmond office cited the SPLC in targeting “radical traditional Catholics” for surveillance in a memo last January, before the national office officially rescinded the memo. The Justice Department took a briefing with the SPLC when it released a “hate” report in 2023.
According to documents obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, FBI agents worked about 16,000 more hours during the pay period after the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, than they did during the pay period of the 2020 riots in Washington, D.C.
The Daily Signal reached out to the FBI Monday evening for comment. The FBI responded “we don’t have any comment,” in an email just before noon on Tuesday after the story was initially published.
New whistleblower documents show the FBI is every bit the politicized secret police force you feared it was. pic.twitter.com/hFEUvjrNSL
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 11, 2024
The post FBI Suspends Employee’s Clearance After Probing Trump Support, COVID-19 Views appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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