Shellenberger Exposes How USAID Ran Information Operations to Control Media; Jordan Blasts Judge Blocking DOGE

During a February 12, 2025, Senate hearing on “Eliminating Waste by the Foreign Aid Bureaucracy,” journalist and investigator Michael Shellenberger testified that USAID had been running “information operations” to control independent media worldwide while simultaneously training NGOs to “demand censorship.” Committee Chairman Jim Jordan drew a direct line from the weaponization of the Treasury Department against Shellenberger personally — including an IRS investigation launched the same day he published Twitter Files — to a federal judge’s order blocking DOGE from accessing Treasury data. Jordan argued the absurdity: “108,376 people can have access to information, but the people the President of the United States selects” cannot.

Jordan: Treasury Weaponized Against Shellenberger

Chairman Jordan opened by establishing a pattern of retaliation against Shellenberger that was chilling in its specificity.

“One of those 108,376 employees at the Department of Treasury decided they were going to start an investigation into you,” Jordan said. “And that just happened to coincide with the day you did one of the Twitter Files. One of those important Twitter Files, is that right?”

“Yes, it was,” Shellenberger confirmed.

Jordan continued: “And then a few months later, you’re sitting in that same seat testifying in front of this committee, and the very time you’re testifying, another one of those 108,376 people knocked on your door. Unannounced visit to your home.”

The timeline Jordan laid out was damning. A Treasury investigation opened on the same day Shellenberger published his Twitter Files reporting, which exposed government involvement in social media censorship. Then, while he was physically testifying before Congress about those findings, federal agents appeared at his home. Jordan noted that the practice of unannounced home visits had since been discontinued “because of this issue and a bunch of other crazy things they were doing.”

Jordan then revealed the final irony: “Just for the record, they actually owed you money, right? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“They did. They owed me quite a lot of money,” Shellenberger confirmed.

The government had initiated an investigation and conducted an unannounced home visit against a journalist who reported on government censorship — and the government itself owed him money. The sequence was, as Jordan characterized it, “obviously a way to intimidate someone who is focusing on this issue we’re discussing today.”

The DOGE Court Order: “108,000 People Can, But the President Can’t”

Jordan then pivoted to the federal court order that had blocked DOGE personnel from accessing Treasury Department data.

“In an order from a judge, the judge in the Southern District of New York said that no political appointees or special government employees can have access to information,” Jordan said. “108,376 people can have access to information, but the people the President of the United States selects — the guy who was elected by 77 million people — he can’t have people go in and look and see if we can save some money for the taxpayers.”

Jordan read from the court order: the judge had issued a “preliminary injunction against the defendants… from granting any political appointees, special government employees, from any access to that information.”

The juxtaposition was powerful. Over 108,000 Treasury employees — including, as Jordan had just demonstrated, at least one who had weaponized his position to investigate a journalist — could access Treasury’s payment systems. But the president’s own appointees, selected to audit those systems for fraud and waste, were barred by a district court judge.

“I find that kind of troubling,” Jordan said. “We’ve got a federal government employee who’s working hard on Christmas Eve, probably remotely, going after Mr. Taibbi. But the President of the United States can’t have people go in and look and see if we can save some money for the taxpayers. He can’t do that according to this judge.”

Jordan cited the Constitution directly: “Article Two, Section One, very first sentence: ‘Executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.’ First sentence.”

He framed the fundamental question: “Do you trust the unelected bureaucrats, or do you trust the guy who was elected by the people? I would rather put our trust in the people who they put in office to do these kinds of things.”

Shellenberger: USAID Ran “Information Operations”

Shellenberger’s testimony then addressed the substantive focus of the hearing: how USAID had been involved in censorship operations.

“I think it’s important to understand that USAID viewed this very holistically,” Shellenberger testified. He connected the USAID censorship apparatus to the Hunter Biden laptop suppression.

“If you look at the Hunter Biden laptop case, which is an extremely important case to understand, the FBI was weaponized, then weaponized the Aspen Institute to brainwash the entire media,” Shellenberger said. “It wasn’t just that they censored it. It was that they changed the perception of the laptop. They created the perception that it was something other than what it obviously was.”

He then described USAID’s role: “USAID has been in the process of taking over so-called independent investigative journalism around the world. And at the same time, then training NGOs how to demand censorship.”

Shellenberger identified a specific organization: “Mr. Aaron’s organization has been working to train organizations to so-called flag misinformation behind the scenes.” He drew a distinction between legitimate public criticism and covert censorship operations: “It’s one thing to criticize somebody publicly, which we should all be engaged in. But this thing where you’re skulking around and secretly — that’s not what open democracy is.”

He delivered his sharpest condemnation: “This thing of going out and secretly flagging information behind the scenes and demanding censorship — that is completely an abomination. That is not what our democracy is.”

USAID and OCCRP: Strategically Leaking Intelligence

Shellenberger elaborated on the mechanism USAID used to control investigative journalism, describing a pipeline that connected intelligence agencies to media outlets through USAID-funded intermediaries.

“Often what they’re doing, for example, with USAID and OCCRP, is that they’re leaking intelligence from the intelligence agencies,” Shellenberger said. “And not like WikiLeaks where they just dumped it, probably too much without the proper redactions. But they’re strategically leaking it and then manipulating places like The Guardian and The New York Times to publish certain stories and control the whole investigative news process.”

The OCCRP — the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project — had received substantial USAID funding. Shellenberger’s testimony alleged that the organization served as a conduit for intelligence agencies to plant stories in major media outlets, giving government-sourced information the appearance of independent journalism.

Jordan connected this to the laptop suppression: “They set them all up because they had the laptop and they knew what was coming. And when it happens, everyone buys into what the 51 former intelligence officials say.”

Free Speech Under Global Threat

A witness who had emigrated from India provided a personal perspective on the stakes. “I come from India originally. I live in Canada. I’ve lived in India. I’ve lived in the Middle East. I’ve lived in places where just speaking your mind can send you to prison,” the witness said.

“When I came to the West, it was refreshing to finally be able to express myself,” the witness continued. “And unfortunately, what I left behind has come to me in Canada, has followed me to Canada. And I’m seeing that happening in the United States. And it’s very worrying because it’s happened so quickly.”

The witness concluded with a warning that crystallized the hearing’s central concern: “If we can’t settle our disputes with debate, the alternative is frightening.”

Key Takeaways

• Chairman Jordan revealed that Treasury opened an investigation into Shellenberger on the same day he published Twitter Files, and agents visited his home while he was testifying before Congress — and the government actually owed him money.
• Jordan blasted a federal judge for blocking DOGE from Treasury data, noting that 108,376 Treasury employees had access but the president’s appointees could not “look and see if we can save some money for the taxpayers.”
• Shellenberger testified that USAID had been “taking over so-called independent investigative journalism around the world” while “training NGOs how to demand censorship.”
• He described USAID and OCCRP as strategically leaking intelligence through outlets like The Guardian and The New York Times to “control the whole investigative news process.”
• A witness who emigrated from India warned that the censorship practices he fled were now appearing in Canada and the United States: “If we can’t settle our disputes with debate, the alternative is frightening.”