Newly released emails show that an anti-free speech State Department subagency faced scathing accusations of “targeting Americans” through alleged taxpayer-funded plots.
Journalist Matt Taibbi published a May 2019 email exchange between a Democratic Senate staffer and an unnamed official at the Global Engagement Center (GEC). The emails show that the two discussed allegations that the infamous government agency weaponized taxpayer money to target American journalists and academics. Taibbi raised the alarm that even Democrats have blasted GEC over disturbing reports it is colluding with entities to censor Americans on social media.
According to screenshots shared by Taibbi, Alex Carnes, then a Senate Appropriations Committee staffer, reached out to the GEC asking it to respond to allegations of impropriety stemming from a taxpayer-funded group. Carnes specifically told a GEC official that he had “received word from a few different people that were stories circulating about the GEC targeting Americans.” Carnes further queried, “I don’t see anything about this save for old conversations we’ve had. Is there something you expect to be in the press on this topic?”
Related: EXCLUSIVE: Taibbi Tells Bozell Big Tech, Big Media Did ‘Complete 180’ on Free Speech
At the time, Jason Rezaian, an opinion editor for The Washington Post, had accused GEC of funding the Iran Disinformation Project—an Iranian-based nonprofit that would ultimately target him on Twitter. The GEC-funded group allegedly accused Rezaian of spreading anti-Iranian propaganda through various since-deleted tweets. Rezaian wrote in an op-ed he expected the Iranian government to attack him, later decrying: “But I never imagined the U.S. State Department would be funding my attackers.” The GEC ultimately pulled its funding from the infamous pro-Iranian group.
The GEC official communicating with Carnes claimed not to know specifically what he was referring to but pushed back against the accusations anyway, according to Taibbi’s screenshots. Addressing Carnes specifically, the individual claimed that dubious allegations had come up before, which he dismissed. “Broadly speaking, I can tell you that in various parts of the internet, the conspiracy narrative that the GEC is a piece of the U.S. government’s grand plan to brainwash Americans isn’t a new one,” the GEC official reportedly said.
But that’s not all.
According to the exchange shared by Taibbi, Carnes blasted GEC for the response, highlighting that the federal government was being accused of misusing taxpayer-funded programs to attack Americans. The Senate responded by highlighting concerns that “State resources had been inappropriately used to target Americans.” He added that it was a “fine line the GEC itself has wanted to walk” and that the concerns were “not totally unfounded.”
Taibbi’s revelations come on the heels of widespread condemnation against the GEC over its contentious funding of pro-censorship organizations. Most infamously, GEC was heavily involved in the launch of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), which engaged in election-interfering censorship in 2020. Republican lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have aimed to defund GEC over the disturbing accusations.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) directly addressed the GEC-tied EIP in December 2023. He said: “Under this scheme, government officials and federally funded organizations flagged posts they deemed ‘misinformation’ to EIP analysts, who in turn would flag them for the intended social media platform.”
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