(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) House Republicans have raised serious concerns over the testimony of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas regarding the alleged interference of President Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
In a letter sent to Mayorkas on Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, highlighted inconsistencies in the Mayorkas’s recent testimony before the Committee on July 26, 2023, related to the federal agency’s censorship of information.
Mayorkas testified that the controversial Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) does not censor speech, a claim that clashes with the findings of a federal court in the case of Missouri v. Biden.
“Your testimony at the hearing contained a number of assertions about the Department’s censorship activities that are inconsistent with the findings of a federal court and information in the Committee’s possession,” Jordan wrote in the letter, also signed by GOP Reps. Mike Johnson, La., Thomas Massie, Ky. and Dan Bishop, N.C.
According to a press release from Republicans, the court’s preliminary injunction motion indicated that CISA engaged in activities pressuring social media platforms to censor content protected by the First Amendment, including both domestic and foreign-sourced disinformation.
Furthermore, the letter references evidence obtained by the committee indicating that CISA officials flagged “misinformation,” including domestically originated political speech, for removal on social media platforms, raising questions about the agency’s true intentions.
Mayorkas’s assertion that the practice of “switchboarding” was no longer employed by CISA is contradicted by communications from February 2021 that show CISA officials flagging alleged disinformation related to domestic elections, House Republicans stated in the letter.
The letter also points out inconsistencies in Mayorkas’s definition of “malinformation.” While he described it during the testimony as “false information that is used for a particular purpose,” CISA’s definition characterizes it as “information based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” This stark difference in definitions is troubling given the potential consequences for Americans’ civil liberties, Republicans warned.
The House Republicans’ letter calls on Mayorkas to correct his testimony. They underscore that the evidence presented raises concerns about the potential misuse of government power to suppress speech and control the narrative, especially during a crucial electoral period.
