Biden ‘disinformation’ chief a Trump dossier author fan and Hunter Biden laptop doubter

The Biden administration’s new czar to fight disinformation has a historical past of sharing deceptive claims about British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier and downplaying controversy embroiling President Joe Biden‘s son.

Nina Jankowicz, who was a disinformation fellow on the Wilson Center and adviser to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as a part of the Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, confirmed a report Wednesday that she has been named govt director of the Department of Homeland Security’s new “Disinformation Governance Board.”

“Honored to be serving within the Biden Administration’s Department of Homeland Security and serving to form our counter-disinformation efforts,” Jankowicz tweeted, sharing the Politico article concerning the rent that stated she would “coordinate countering misinformation associated to homeland safety” and give attention to Russia. Jankowicz has written two books: How To Lose The Information War: Russia, Fake News, and The Future Of Conflict and How to Be a Woman Online: Surviving Abuse and Harassment, and How to Fight Back.

But there’s a lot to unpack earlier than she even will get began in her new function. The Washington Examiner dove into her feedback lately. For one, Jankowicz touted Steele’s thoughts on disinformation.

On Aug. 7, 2020, Jankowicz tweeted about an look Steele made on the Infotagion podcast. “Listened to this final evening — Chris Steele (sure THAT Chris Steele) supplies some nice historic context concerning the evolution of disinfo. Worth a hear,” she stated.

Steele is maybe greatest recognized within the United States for his anti-Trump dossier, which Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded in December 2019 performed a “central and important” function within the FBI’s effort to acquire wiretap orders towards former Trump marketing campaign affiliate Carter Page.

Steele’s alleged essential supply, Igor Danchenko, was charged “with 5 counts of creating false statements to the FBI,” which John Durham claims he made concerning the data he offered to Steele for his discredited dossier. Horowitz stated FBI interviews with Danchenko “raised vital questions concerning the reliability of the Steele election reporting” and concluded that Danchenko “contradicted the allegations of a ‘well-developed conspiracy’ in” Steele’s dossier.

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Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted Dec. 8, 2017, “Was there collusion between DOJ and Fusion GPS to make use of Democratic funded dossier for political and authorized functions?” Jankowicz replied that “your social gathering funded the dossier first” and tweeted April 22, 2020, that “you’re in all probability conscious that [the Steele dossier] started as a Republican opposition analysis venture.”

But Steele created his discredited anti-Trump dossier after being employed in early 2016 by the opposition agency Fusion GPS, which was itself employed by the Perkins Coie legislation agency and Marc Elias, the general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s presidential marketing campaign.

The conservative Free Beacon said in October 2017 that it had “no information of or connection to the Steele dossier” and “didn’t pay for the dossier.”

Jankowicz additionally said in April 2020 that “the inclusion of the Steele dossier didn’t affect the conclusions of the [intelligence community assessment].”

However, FBI Director James Comey and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe fought to include data from Steele’s dossier within the January 2017 ICA on Russian election interference. Although the CIA and NSA in the end overruled their efforts, the dossier was nonetheless summarized in a categorized annex hooked up to the report.

Jankowicz additionally cast doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop story whereas falsely claiming an intelligence neighborhood report on overseas meddling referenced it. In explicit, she performed a key function in attempting to shoot down experiences by the New York Post concerning the contents of the laptop believed to have belonged to the youthful Biden.

The Associated Press ran a story Oct. 14, 2020, reporting, “Disinformation consultants say there are a number of purple flags that elevate doubts about their authenticity, together with questions on whether or not the laptop truly belongs to Hunter Biden, stated Nina Jankowicz.” The report quoted her as saying that “we must always view it as a Trump marketing campaign product.”

Jankowicz shared a report Oct. 22, 2020, she said was “casting but extra doubt on the provenance of the New York Post‘s Hunter Biden story.” And she tweeted that day, “The emails don’t should be altered to be a part of an affect marketing campaign. Voters deserve that context, not a [fairy] story about a laptop restore store.”

She tweeted throughout that evening’s presidential debate, “Back on the ‘laptop from hell,’ apparently — Biden notes 50 former natsec officers and 5 former CIA heads that imagine the laptop is a Russian affect op. Trump says ‘Russia, Russia, Russia.’” She tweeted Wednesday, “For those that imagine this tweet is a key to all my views, it’s merely a direct quote from each candidates through the remaining presidential debate.”

Joe Biden was referring to a Politico report concerning the letter in an article titled “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officers say.” Despite providing no proof, Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential marketing campaign, together with many within the media, dismissed the laptop story as a Russian disinformation operation.

John Ratcliffe, former President Donald Trump’s director of nationwide intelligence, stated in October 2020 that there was “no intelligence” the laptop story was a Russian invention.

Jankowicz tweeted Oct. 24, 2020, about “the nuance of the alleged Biden laptop kerfuffle.”

She later tweeted March 16, 2021, that the intelligence neighborhood “has a excessive diploma of confidence that the Kremlin used proxies to push affect narratives, together with deceptive or unsubstantiated claims about President Biden.” She claimed this was “a clear nod to the alleged Hunter laptop.”

But the report released by Joe Biden’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence in March 2021 didn’t reference the laptop story and reached no public conclusions on it.

Jankowicz stated on NPR’s On Point on Oct. 26, 2020, “I hesitate to make a conjecture about whether or not a overseas adversary is even concerned.”

She pointed to Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon’s involvement, then stated, “We know, for example, Russia has hacked paperwork and then put in cast paperwork amongst them — that is a tactic they’ve used for many years, in actual fact — or whether or not they had been stolen by a home adversary. All of that is essential context for voters, and proper now, we don’t have any of that context.”

She additionally tried to forged doubt on the Iranian regime interfering in 2020 to harm Trump’s probabilities of being reelected.

Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray held an Oct. 21, 2020, press convention and warned that Russia and Iran had gained entry to U.S. voter registration data.

“We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and injury President Trump. … These actions are determined makes an attempt by determined adversaries,” Ratcliffe stated.

NPR performed audio by Florida voter Rebecca Connors, who obtained one of many alleged Iranian emails, and she rejected Ratcliffe’s conclusion. “I didn’t want this e mail to affiliate [Trump] with the Proud Boys … so I personally don’t purchase that argument,” she stated.

Jankowicz additionally rejected Ratcliffe’s conclusion.

“I feel Rebecca is strictly proper,” she stated, including, “These are designed to suppress voters, to start with, and they’re additionally designed to trigger chaos and confusion and mistrust within the system writ massive.” Jankowicz criticized Ratcliffe, saying he was “making it appear to be these campaigns are in search of to focus on President Trump, when in actuality it’s about concentrating on our democracy.”

But the 2021 ODNI report concluded that the Iranian regime “carried out a multi-pronged covert affect marketing campaign meant to undercut” Trump’s reelection prospects.

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In addition, Jankowicz criticized Ratcliffe’s “actually weird resolution to declassify some unverified intelligence concerning the 2016 election that form of dredged up the entire Hillary Clinton e mail scandal and the hack and leak operation perpetrated by the Russians, and once more, that appeared like a political resolution designed to assist President Trump.”

Ratcliffe declassified within the fall of 2020 two heavily redacted Russia-related paperwork, together with handwritten notes from former CIA Director John Brennan displaying he briefed then-President Barack Obama in 2016 on an unverified Russian intelligence report. The report claimed Clinton deliberate in July 2016 on tying then-candidate Trump to Russia’s hack of the Democratic National Committee to distract from the controversy surrounding her improper use of a personal e mail server.