The State Department sent a notification to Congress that it plans to terminate an agency accused of censoring conservatives after losing support from lawmakers, according to a court filing and a source familiar with the correspondence.
In the filing, attorneys for the State Department said the agency told lawmakers on Friday of its plan to move the Global Engagement Center’s staff and funding to other bureaus aimed at fighting foreign disinformation. The filing was made public as part of a lawsuit brought by conservative media outlets against the State Department over its funding of the Global Disinformation Index, a fact first reported by the Washington Examiner in 2023 that sparked congressional oversight and a flurry of lawsuits.
The Global Engagement Center, an office housed within the State Department, was launched in 2016 and was intended to be reauthorized after eight years. But following reports from the Washington Examiner and journalist Matt Taibbi in connection to the “Twitter Files,” House Republicans grew increasingly frustrated with the GEC and its ties to apparent efforts to censor speech.
In part, their discontentment grew from the fact that the Global Disinformation Index, which received $100,000 from the GEC, crafted a blacklist of conservative media outlets and fed it to advertising companies to strip right-leaning websites of revenue.
“The GEC is guilty of the highest crime an agency of its kind can commit: that it weaponed itself,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who helped lead the charge pushing not to reauthorize the GEC, told the Washington Examiner.
A significant player in the “censorship” investigation was House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX), who has led an experienced staff that looked into GEC grants and obtained exclusive documents that unearthed apparent wrongdoing.
The GEC, barring Congress drastically changing course, plans to terminate on Dec. 23, the court filings said. Lawmakers in the House and the Senate reached agreements for the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, but they did not include a provision in the text that would extend the GEC until 2031.
In September, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) launched an investigation into the GEC, saying that the State Department attempted to link him to Russia falsely. His oversight began after the New York Post published leaked documents showing that the State Department sought to discredit reporting from the Washington Examiner and Taibbi in a memo — which appeared to make it seem as if Banks was originally quoted in a Russian news outlet.
However, the quote was a variation of comments he first made to the Washington Examiner defending freedom of speech.
“It weaponized itself in the name of partisan politics, targeted innocent people, and sought the censorship of American citizens. It will not be missed,” Issa said of the GEC.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, a State Department spokesperson said the agency is “disappointed” that the NDAA text does not include an extension for the GEC but “remains hopeful that Congress extends this important mandate through other means before the Dec. 24th termination date.”
“The bottom line is we need to ensure that the capability to identify and counter foreign disinformation overseas is maintained. As our adversaries continue to ramp up their efforts globally, it’s counterintuitive — and dangerous — to weaken or worse yet, dismantle the US’s leadership in this critical mission,” the spokesperson said.
...
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...ment-congress-close-global-engagement-center/
