GOP senators release documents showing Biden admin lied about disinfo board

Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Charles Grassley of Iowa released a series of documents on Wednesday showing that the Biden administration’s Disinformation Governance Board was intended to have a domestic focus, despite promises from administration officials.

Top Biden administration officials, most notably Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, repeatedly claimed that the board would focus on disinformation pushed by foreign actors. However, the documents released by Hawley and Grassley reveal that the board intended to target alleged disinformation by topic, not by national origin. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “paused” the board in May before it began operations, although it has the option to bring it back.

The leaked documents show that the Biden administration expressed particular concern about “conspiracy theories about the validity and security of elections,” “disinformation related to the origins and effects of COVID-19 vaccines or the efficacy of masks,” and “falsehoods surrounding U.S. government immigration policy.” Notably, the document listing the topics of concern does not stress the sources of the alleged disinformation, only that the issues “must not be politicized.”