Statement from CEO Nina Jankowicz on the House Judiciary Committee’s Release of Her Deposition Transcript

Jordan Caves to Jankowicz

House Judiciary GOP Complies with American Sunlight Project Demand and Releases Jankowicz Judiciary Deposition

ASP Renews Demand for Jordan to Release the Rest of the Transcripts

The following statement is attributed to American Sunlight Project Co-Founder and CEO Nina Jankowicz:

“Today, The American Sunlight Project scored a major victory for transparency and truth: The House Judiciary Committee finally released the transcript of my sworn deposition that entirely dispels the lies about my tenure as Executive Director of the Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security.

“Chairman Jordan clearly knows this transcript destroys their conspiracy theories, which is why he withheld it for so long and released it on a Friday evening. In doing so, the Committee attempted to distract from the revelations contained within it that are embarrassing to Chairman Jordan, including that he shared a manipulated video of me in an attempt to scare American citizens into believing his lies.

“As my transcript shows, neither the Board nor I had any purview, authority, or intention to censor anyone or act as an arbiter of truth.

“As I told the Committee:
The board never had any operational authority. It did not have the intention to arbitrate, oversee, restrict any thoughts. Everything that you've heard about the board related to it being a, quote/unquote, "Ministry of Truth," is a lie.

And, Congressman, I think if you'll look at my scholarship at the Wilson Center, through which I've, by the way, briefed Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle—I was a witness at the request of Senator Grassley in 2018, so, clearly, some Republicans thought I was getting something right—my scholarship has been about arming people with truthful information, not taking away their right to free speech. And if that had been part of my job, I never would've taken the job, and I would've spoken out against that.

“In fact, the Board’s function was to ensure policy coordination around the issue of disinformation, and to protect rights that Americans hold dear:
[The Board] was a coordination mechanism, within the Department of Homeland Security, to make sure that the Department was doing its work in a way that comported with American civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.

“Because of GOP lies, not only has that important work been stymied, our nation is less safe and less informed as dozens of other researchers, government officials, and technology platform employees have been targeted by Chairman Jordan’s 21st Century McCarthyist inquisition.

“I know what this is like firsthand. As I told the Committee, the time since my resignation from the federal government was:
a really difficult one. I gave birth a few weeks after I left government, and over the past year I have been subject to threats, stalking, and a number of other really stressful and difficult situations.

[...] I only took a job in my area of expertise, something, again, that both Republicans and Democrats in this Congress have benefited from over the past 6 years. And to say that anybody, Republican, Democrat, in between, martian, I don't care, should receive death threats, or it should be okay that people are receiving death threats because they're in public is very concerning to me as an American, and it's concerning for me as someone who hopes that other people won't be dissuaded from going into public service because of what I've been through.

[...] The fact that we have Members of Congress and media who act like it's a game, and that there aren't real consequences to the words that they say is really—it's disturbing for me as an American.

“We are not backing down, and ASP’s work for transparency is not done. Chairman Jordan has proved that he will continue to lie to the American people to justify this sham investigation. During the Subcommittee’s May 1 hearing, the Chairman repeatedly denied requests from Democratic members to release other transcripts in his weaponized investigation, falling back on excuses of process. Despite this, neither Chairman Jordan nor his staff had any communication or consultation with me or my counsel regarding the release of my transcript, despite his promises to do so. I therefore call on him to immediately release the remaining transcripts for the dozens of other researchers and trust and safety professionals he has targeted.

“We applaud Ranking Member Plaskett, Rep. Nadler, Rep. Ivey, Rep. Dean, and the other members for their dogged attention to transparency and work to get this transcript released.

“We look forward to the majority releasing the dozens of other transcripts they have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to collect as soon as possible.”

To read the statement from our CEO, please click here.

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Contact: Eddie Vale, eddie@npagency.com