Jim Jordan submits subpoena to expelled DHS disinformation officer Nina Jankowitz, school board official

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Monday issued a subpoena to Nina Jankowitz, who was ousted from the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Committee.

Mr. Jordan had been trying for 10 months to get Mr. Jankowitz to come forward, but she refused his pleas, so he had to use coercive means to force her to take a deposition before the commission. said there wasn’t.

He also issued subpoenas to two former high-ranking officials of the National Association of School Boards, who wrote to the Justice Department in 2021 demanding that federal authorities crack down on upset parents at local school boards. .

A few days after their letter, Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered the Department of Justice to look for “threats” to the school board.

Jordan said Chip Slaven, who was interim director of the National Association at the time, and Viola Garcia, who was president, also ignored his request to voluntarily participate.

The subpoena is the latest in a series of demands by Ohio Republican Jordan, who is zealously exercising the power of the Republican majority in the House.

Jordan said he first asked Jankowitz to testify on May 5, 2022. At the time, the Republican Party was in the minority.

Jordan updated his demands on December 1, when Republicans were still in the minority, but was ready to take control when the new Congress was inaugurated.

He sent other letters on 27 January, 16 February and 1 March.

“To this day, however, you have refused to voluntarily comply with our request for a transcript of the interview,” he said.

Jankowicz was quietly appointed to head Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ ill-fated Disinformation Governance Board.

After her role was revealed, critics said she was an odd choice given her role in spreading misleading information on social media. There have been allegations that Hunter Biden’s laptop is a foreign disinformation campaign.

Mr. Mayorkas faced withering criticism from Congress when he gave conflicting accounts of what his Disinformation Commission was trying to achieve and put the commission on ICE. rice field.

But Republicans say questions still need to be answered about what the board was trying to achieve and what actions it took prior to its dissolution.

The school board controversy also continues to boil over, with Garland facing questions from senators at a public hearing last week.

The Republican says the NSBA prompted him to release a memo ordering the FBI to oversee the politics of the local school board.

“A whistleblower reveals that this memorandum led to the establishment of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) ‘threat tag,’ and the Department of Justice believes that the FBI has filed at least 25 criminal charges as a result of the NSBA letter you co-signed. “We have confirmed that we have investigated the case of ,” Jordan said in a letter revealing the subpoena.

Garland said last week that he did not order an investigation into the parents for expressing concerns about their children’s education. He said he intends to eradicate “violence and threats of violence against school personnel as a whole.”

He admitted he was “partially” prompted by the NSBA letter, but said he was also responding to news reports about the violence.

“My memorandum does not say to investigate angry parents. Quite the opposite. The First Amendment says it protects such lively debate.” he said. “The only thing we wanted was an on-the-spot assessment of whether federal assistance is needed to prevent violence and threats of violence.”