This is part of a Washington Examiner series on self-styled 'disinformation' tracking groups that are blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media. Here is where you can read other stories in the series.
EXCLUSIVE — The State Department has missed a deadline set by Rep. James Comer (R-KY) to provide documents related to the agency's funding of the Global Disinformation Index, a group blacklisting conservative media outlets.
Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, demanded on Feb. 23 that the department turn over records by March 9 related to GDI, which received $665,000 combined between 2020 and 2021 from the State Department-backed Global Engagement Center and National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit group. However, the State Department missed the deadline and has been in touch with Comer, according to the committee.
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"The State Department has informed us that it is working on identifying and producing documents that are responsive to Chairman Comer’s request," a spokesperson for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee told the Washington Examiner. "We will continue to press the State Department to provide answers about passing taxpayer dollars to groups attempting to blacklist conservative news outlets."
Republicans, including Comer, have continued to raise concerns over the State Department funding GDI. The Washington Examiner first reported on GDI's blacklist in early February. The self-styled disinformation tracker has said that the 10 "riskiest" outlets are the Federalist, the American Conservative, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, the New York Post, and other right-leaning outlets.
Comer is seeking State Department records in connection to grants "used to suppress" news groups in the United States and to GDI, as well as communications between government contractors, employees, and grantees in the U.S. and overseas "relating to any efforts to suppress so-called mis-, dis-, or mal- information uttered or hosted by any individual or organization within the United States."
The congressman is also seeking records showing the identities of people who may have encouraged "a third party to take action" against entities in the U.S. hosting content determined by the government, or entities funded by the government, to be "disinformation" or "misinformation."
"The Committee is disturbed by recent reporting that taxpayer money ended up in the hands of a foreign organization running an advertising blacklist of organizations accused of hosting disinformation on their websites, including several conservative-leaning news organizations," Comer wrote in his Feb. 23 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Comer's letter also asked the State Department to brief the Oversight Committee by March 2 on GDI funding. On March 1, Oversight and the House Foreign Affairs Committee received a classified briefing on the grants, the Washington Examiner reported.
In that briefing, the Global Engagement Center did not commit to no longer funding GDI but said no "further work is planned." On the contrary, the National Endowment for Democracy, which also briefed committees on GDI funding in late February, has announced it is cutting ties with the group.
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"We recognize the important work GDI has done with NED support in other countries to help preserve the integrity of the information space and counter authoritarian influence," Leslie Aun, NED's vice president of communications, told the Washington Examiner. "However, given our commitment to avoid the perception that NED is engaged in any work domestically, directly or indirectly, we will no longer provide financial support to GDI."
The State Department declined a request for comment.