On 5/4/2022, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana directed the question at Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a hearing held by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senator Kennedy asked Mayorkas about Nina Jankowicz, who was chosen to serve as the board’s executive director, “When the department picked her, did they know that she said that Mr. Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian disinformation?” Mayorkas replied, “I was not aware of that. We do not discuss the internal hiring process. Ultimately as the secretary, I’m responsible for the decisions of the Department of Homeland Security.”
“When the department picked Ms. Jankowicz did it know that she had vouched for the veracity of the Steele dossier?” Kennedy asked. “I was not aware of that fact,” Mayorkas responded.
Jankowicz had dismissed the emails extracted from Hunter Biden’s laptop, which revealed some suspect foreign business dealings involving the president, as a “Trump campaign product.” She also tweeted about a podcast featuring the dossier’s author: “listened to this last night – Chris Steele (yes THAT Chris Steele) provides some great historical context about the evolution of disinfo. Worth a listen.” She also said in April 2020 that “the inclusion of the Steele dossier didn’t influence the conclusions of the [intelligence community assessment].” However, the since debunked Steele dossier was a key part of the evidence the FBI presented to the FISA court to obtain a warrant to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the report was cited in an annex of Mueller’s final report.
“When the department picked her, was the department aware of her TikTok videos? They’re really quite precocious,” Kennedy said, referring to a juvenile spoof of a Mary Poppins song about disinformation Jankowicz posted on Twitter in February 2021. Mayorkas claimed he had no knowledge of the videos.
the senator asked Mayorkas whether the DGB would investigate matters such as when President Barack Obama “said if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Kennedy seemed to be referencing Obama’s often-repeated but later criticized pledge that “if you like your insurance, you can keep it” under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Mayorkas told Kennedy in response that the board does not have an operational authority or capability. “But there’s a more fundamental principle that really strikes at the question that you have posed, and that is that our mission is to protect the security of the homeland, and we address disinformation when it threatens the security of the homeland,” Mayorkas said.
Kennedy interrupted Mayorkas with his question about the Lewinsky scandal, the senator specifically wanted to know if the DHS’s Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) would investigate Clinton for saying under oath that he did not have relations with Lewinsky when she worked at the White House. Clinton later admitted to having a relationship with Lewinsky “that was not appropriate,” in his words. Responding to Kennedy’s question, Mayorkas said, “Senator, again, let me be clear that the department’s responsibility is to address this information that threatens the security of the homeland.”
Some Republicans have compared the Biden administration’s proposed Disinformation Governance Board to a fictional department called the Ministry of Truth that is in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. Republicans have questioned Jankowicz’ ability to preside over the board with impartiality and fairness, given that she also endorsed the work of Christopher Steele, the author of the discredited dossier on former president Donald Trump that sparked the Mueller probe. Mayorkas also claimed to have been unaware of Jankowicz’s endorsement of the Steele dossier during the hearing.
https://facebook.com/HygoNewsUSA/videos/331766599027016/
Kennedy: who picked her? Did you know her Hunter Biden laptop & Steele dossier disinformation? Investigate Obamacare & Clinton Lewinsky?