Rep. Jim Banks is demanding an explanation from the State Department regarding its press office’s lie about him spreading Russian “disinformation.” The press office had discredited Banks along with two journalists reporting on grants that promoted the censorship of American citizens, according to a letter exclusively obtained by The Post. The Indiana Republican expressed his concerns in a Monday missive to Secretary of State Antony Blinken after a bombshell Post report revealed US government spokespeople were seeking to discredit Banks and the aforementioned journalists.
Banks claims that the State Department, which was defending its alleged domestic “disinformation” operation, spread misinformation about a U.S. lawmaker. He termed this as a “sloppy and hypocritical lie,” typical of the Biden-Harris administration’s repeated attacks on the First Amendment and Americans’ free speech rights.
The State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), which was reportedly focused on countering foreign disinformation overseas, pressured social media companies to censor American citizens’ speech and funneled taxpayer dollars to international organizations like the Global Disinformation Index (GDI. This organization allegedly blacklisted The Post and other outlets with conservative- or libertarian-leaning opinion sections that were accused of spreading “disinformation.
GEC also signed off on a $100,000 grant to GDI between October 2021 and March 2022. Another $756,923 was approved through a government-funded grant from the National Endowment for Democracy to GDI between 2020 and 2023. The House Small Business Committee released a report that detailed these grants and showed GEC’s private support for GDI as it interacted with various US tech companies.
Banks is seeking explanations by October 1 concerning the decisions that led to the misleading press guidance from the State Department. He told The Post, “I have been personally sanctioned by Russia, but this is the second time this year the Biden-Harris administration or its proxies have falsely accused me of boosting Russian propaganda.” He added, “Congress must defund the Global Engagement Center.
