A group of Republican lawmakers has written a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, demanding the immediate release all relevant documents related to the currently paused Disinformation Governance Board.
On May 4 when Mayorkas testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about the creation of the new board, he promised to produce all records of the board to the committee unless there is a legal prohibition against doing so.
However, “our offices still have not received any of these documents,“ the letter said. ”We are therefore writing to demand immediate access to all records and communications related to the Disinformation Governance Board.”
Stating that they were pleased about DHS’s decision to shut down the board in response to concerns they had raised, Republican senators insisted that such a “mistake” should not be repeated.
GOP lawmakers demanded the DHS be transparent about its decision-making process to understand why it ever thought that creating a disinformation board “would be a good idea.”
The letter asked the DHS to submit recorded or written communication related to the board’s formation, minutes from any meeting during the formation of the board, a legal review to determine whether the board’s activities would be authorized according to the American constitution, any communication or record about individuals who would serve on the board, communications related to the appointment of the board’s executive director, and communications with the White House related to the board’s formation and appointment of officials.
In addition, any document that has ties with the disinformation board but has not been included in the above list has also been requested.
In a response to the backlash, the disinformation board was paused and a panel was created to review it. Nina Jankowicz, who was tapped to lead the board, resigned shortly after her appointment.
“There were very good reasons to question and criticize the Biden admin’s initiative. It is not true that all of the critics were right-wing, or disinfo-mongerers, or operating in bad faith,” he said.