House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has issued subpoenas to Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the Biden administration’s “Disinformation Governance Board” and two former senior officials at the National School Boards Association (NSBA), as part of the committee’s ongoing investigations into domestic spying allegations against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Jordan has been trying to get Jankowicz to testify voluntarily for ten months but eventually had to compel her appearance. The other subpoenas were issued to Chip Slaven, the interim director of the NSBA at the time, and Viola Garcia, president.
Jordan subpoenas former 'Disinformation Governance Board' czar Nina Jankowicz, NSBA officials for deposition https://t.co/3zKRPnVifE
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The committee is investigating the activities of the disbanded Disinformation Governance Board and its creation. Jordan said that the committee repeatedly requested information from Jankowicz concerning her assigned responsibilities as a DHS employee and former executive director of the disinformation board. The committee wants to know how the board defined “disinformation,” how it planned to collect information and from what sources, how it intended to counter disinformation and how it proposed to protect First Amendment rights.
Jankowicz faced criticism after her appointment to the board, with critics questioning her ability to be impartial due to her past social media posts. Her public comments cast doubt on the legitimacy of reporting on the infamous abandoned Hunter Biden laptop immediately before the 2020 election. Jankowicz resigned from the post under that pressure, and DHS put the board on “pause.”
The NSBA controversy revolves around the September 2021 letter co-signed by Slaven and Garcia, which requested federal law enforcement assistance to target parents voicing concerns at local school board meetings. Their letter came before an October 2021 memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland directing the FBI to coordinate with local law enforcement and every U.S. attorney to discuss “parental threats” at school board meetings against faculty and “prosecute them when appropriate.” Republicans say the FBI misused federal criminal and counterterrorism resources to target law-abiding Americans concerned over the public education of their children.
During a hearing last week, Garland faced questions from senators, with Republicans saying that the NSBA prodded him to release his memo ordering the FBI to keep an eye on local school board politics. Garland said he did not order parents to be investigated for expressing concern over their children’s education. Instead, he said he intended to root out “violence and threats of violence against a whole host of school personnel.”
