By Jim Rutenberg and Steven Lee Myers May 11, 2023 Fox News was hit on Wednesday with another defamation lawsuit, this one from a woman who said the network promoted lies about her that generated serious threats to her safety and harmed her career prospects. The suit was filed on behalf of Nina Jankowicz, the former executive director of a short-lived US Department of Homeland Security division assigned with co-ordinating efforts to monitor and address disinformation threats to national security. Right-wing pundits and politicians falsely portrayed her group as part of an Orwellian bid to control the speech and thought of ordinary Americans. Fox has been hit with another defamation lawsuit.Credit: Bloomberg Jankowicz, a prominent specialist in Russian disinformation and online harassment, became the primary subject of their attacks. In 300 mentions over eight months on Fox last year, she was repeatedly demeaned and defamed in highly personal language, the lawsuit asserts. Hosts including Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo and Sean Hannity said her job was “to silence anyone who criticises the Biden administration” and possibly even, as Carlson warned, “get men with guns to tell you to shut up”. The unit Jankowicz briefly headed, called the Disinformation Governance Board, had no such powers, or any direct authority to affect speech. The department created it to help unify and oversee existing efforts by its various divisions to monitor and defend against disinformation from foreign agents seeking to influence elections; cartels promoting human smuggling operations; and those seeking to undermine the government’s public health and safety efforts. Deluge of criticism After Jankowicz resigned to escape the deluge of criticism — which had caused an abrupt suspension of the board’s activities — Fox hosts and guests falsely said she was fired, according to the suit. “Even after achieving their stated goal of driving me out of government and ending the board, they kept using me as a punching bag,” Jankowicz said in an interview on Wednesday. “It shouldn’t be something we just accept — that the most powerful cable network in the world can attack individuals willy-nilly and not face any consequences after they ruin their lives.” Jankowicz, 34, filed her suit in the same Delaware state court system where Dominion Voting lodged its $US1.6 billion ($2.4 billion) defamation lawsuit against Fox News. The network settled that case for $US787.5 million last month, avoiding a lengthy and bruising trial. (The Jankowicz suit is seeking unspecified damages.) That deal represented a tacit acknowledgment that Fox’s promotion of falsehoods about election fraud in the 2020 election was wrongful. But it did not answer the question of whether Dominion would have been able to meet the high legal threshold required to prevail in defamation suits: proving that those who made the statements knew they were false or did not bother to find out. Nina Jankowicz briefly headed the US government’s short-lived Disinformation Governance Board.Credit: Getty Jankowicz would have to meet that same threshold. Fox declined to comment on Wednesday. Her suit nevertheless represents a continued legal threat to the network, possibly made worse by Dominion’s lawsuit. The Dominion case produced reams of internal Fox News communications showing that various hosts and executives knew the claims against the company were indeed false. Jankowicz’s suit specifically cites the Dominion case, saying Fox’s narrative about her “is consistent with Fox’s practices in other contexts, including in its election denialism and the related defamation of Dominion Voting Systems”. ‘Even after achieving their stated goal of driving me out of government and ending the board, they kept using me as a punching bag.’ Nina Jankowicz In a letter to Fox’s general counsel this week, Jankowicz’s lawyers requested that the network preserve all communications — including texts, notes and search histories — regarding her and her position on the board. A lawyer for Jankowicz, Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, said in an interview that the Dominion case “signals that there is a path” for defamation lawsuits against the network. “Dominion shows us how egregious the internal conversations that are happening at Fox are; it shows us that Fox News has an absolute disregard for truth when it is related to their ratings.” Fox maintained it did not show a reckless disregard for the truth in the Dominion case — that would have been determined at trial — but acknowledged in its settlement deal that the judge in the case ruled that the statements at issue in the suit were false. ‘The wicked witch’ All news organisations face their share of lawsuits, but the Dominion suit stood out for the strength of the case, the size of the settlement and its continued fallout: Fox is confronting two shareholder lawsuits relating to the Dominion case, and another suit alleging a hostile workplace from a former Carlson producer, Abby Grossberg. It also helped lead to the cancellation of Carlson’s show. Carlson, currently seeking to break his contract with Fox — which allows the network to keep him on the bench while continuing to pay his salary — is one of nearly 40 hosts and guests mentioned in Jankowicz’s suit. Aside from suggesting that Jankowicz was “the person that polices our thoughts”, as Hannity put it, a mix of hosts and guests keyed off a misleading video clip of her to falsely assert that she had a plan to “start editing your tweets”, as Fox News host Jeanine Pirro had said. At the time of its creation, the disinformation board also raised concerns among liberals, who questioned the powers such an office might have under a future Republican administration, but it fuelled an overwhelming tsunami of partisan Republican attacks that continue to this day. Fox could argue that its relentless coverage of Jankowicz’s role reflected the political debate over the issue. It did so, however, with language that described her as a lunatic, “janko-half-wicz”, a “useful idiot” and “the wicked witch”, according to the complaint. According to Jankowicz’s lawsuit, Fox’s coverage “resulted in immediate online harassment and threats, which continue even now”, citing a litany of misogynistic, antisemitic and violent messages and a doxxing campaign. “This has had an immense impact for my family. I don’t think our security will ever be the same,” Jankowicz said on Wednesday. “I want to make the point that this sort of disinformation and hate campaign doesn’t have a place in American media or American politics; that this isn’t what we stand for.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Since she failed at her short-lived job of spreading disinformation à la 1984 (war is peace freedom is slavery ignorance is strength), she could have a future in comedy.
News Fox News regular who accused Hunter Biden of having nefarious ties to China is now being charged with having nefarious ties to China Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert Jul 11, 2023 https://www.businessinsider.com/ind...o-accused-biden-of-corruption-unsealed-2023-7 Republican members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee used a complex chart to present their preliminary findings into an investigation into financial dealings by President Joe Biden's family during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 10, 2023 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Gal Luft claims he has proof of Hunter Biden profiting off his family name in deals with China. Luft himself has been charged by the DOJ with false statements and being a foreign agent of China. After months of secrecy surrounding the charges against Luft, the indictment has been unsealed. A missing witness into the investigation of Hunter Biden's business dealings who claims he has proof of the President's son's corrupt connections to the Chinese government has reappeared after he himself was accused of being a Chinese agent and fled custody. Days after Gal Luft publicly dared the DOJ to unseal the indictment against him — alleging the charges he's facing are a political attempt to cover up his claims of Hunter Biden's corruption — officials did just that. The US Attorney's Office on Monday released the indictment against the US-Israeli dual citizen, who was arrested in Cyprus in February on charges of willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act ("FARA"), arms trafficking, Iranian sanctions violations, and making false statements to federal agents. Luft and the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, where the charges were filed, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The indictment against Luft Prosecutors say while Luft was serving as the co-director of a strategic think tank, Analysis of Global Security, he agreed to "covertly recruit and pay" a former high-ranking government official and advisor to then-President Trump to publicly support policies that would benefit China without registering as an agent of a foreign entity. Luft told the New York Post that the high-ranking official is the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, James Woolsey, who also worked as a consultant for Luft's think tank and was a senior advisor in Donald Trump's White House. Prosecutors allege Luft created a written "dialogue" between Woolsey and an associate at CEFC China Energy, a state-run energy company, which was then published in a Chinese newspaper online. As Luft was writing, his associate at CEFC China Energy said of Woolsey "n these articles, we do not want to spill all the beans yet, just enough to let 'people' know he is in the corridor of power to be. Just broad stroke policy consideration that leaves plenty of room for interpretation and imagination to be filled in later." In addition to the alleged actions to influence US policy in favor of China, prosecutors argue Luft "worked to broker a deal for Chinese companies to sell certain weapons to Libya, including anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers, and mortar rounds (which LUFT and his associates referred to in coded language as "toys")." "LUFT also worked to broker deals for certain weapons to be sold to the United Arab Emirates, including aerial bombs and rockets," the indictment reads. Luft faces up to 100 years in prison if convicted of the eight counts against him. He vehemently denied the charges to the NY Post, claiming the investigation is politically motivated to prevent him from coming forward to share what he claims is proof of Hunter Biden profiting off his father's name in business deals with Chinese individuals who have ties to military intelligence. Luft's claims about the Biden family Through his own connections with CEFC China Energy, Luft said he was able to confirm Hunter Biden's dealings with the company, including meetings with officials and dollar amounts of deals that were completed. In addition, Luft claimed Hunter Biden was friendly with an FBI agent — a mole called "One Eye" — who Luft says tipped off Hunter's contacts at CEFC to alert them to investigations into their dealings with Biden's son. In an interview with the New York Post released last Wednesday, where he dared prosecutors to unseal the indictment saying it would "make (his) day," Luft says the charges originate from a meeting he arranged with agents of the FBI in 2019, in Brussels, Belgium, where Luft says he shared information with intelligence agents about the Biden family's connections with CEFC China Energy. Prior to his father taking office, the now-President's son made multi-million dollar deals with the company in 2017 to complete energy projects that never came to fruition, The Washington Post reported. Hunter is accused of leveraging Joe Biden's name in the deals in what would be a conflict of interest, though it remains unconfirmed whether the elder Biden personally knew about the business dealings. Emails between Hunter and his business partners make references to saving a percentage of the deal's profits for "the big guy," the NY Post reported, prompting investigations into what Joe Biden knew about the deals. Christopher Clark, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. On the run After being arrested in February — while the indictment against him was still sealed from the public — Luft fled once released on bail. His whereabouts are currently unknown. "I volunteered to inform the US government about potential security breach, and about compromising information about a man vying to be the next president," Luft told the NY Post. "I'm now being hunted by the very same people who I informed and may have to live on the run for the rest of my life." Luft added: "I warned the government about potential risks to the integrity of the 2020 elections ... Just think about it, and ask yourself who's a real criminal in this story?"
US-Israeli analyst charged in New York with being covert China agent, arms dealing Fugitive think tank head Gal Luft claims Biden administration trying to silence him over information he provided to FBI showing US president’s family dealt with Chinese company By AFP and ToI Staff Today https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-is...k-with-being-covert-china-agent-arms-dealing/ Screen capture from video of Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, who is a fugitive from US authorities over alleged illegal ties with China and arms dealing, July 7, 2023. US authorities on Monday announced covert lobbying and arms dealing charges against a US-Israeli analyst who has accused US President Joe Biden’s son of corruption. Federal prosecutors in New York charged Gal Luft, the head of a think tank outside the US capital, of engaging “in multiple, serious, criminal schemes,” according to a Justice Department statement. In announcing the unsealing of an eight-count indictment, prosecutors said Luft is accused of “offenses related to willfully failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), arms trafficking, Iranian sanctions violations, and making false statements to federal agents.” Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, has leveled allegations of corruption against Biden’s family, and Republican politicians called the charges against him an attempt to intimidate a key witness. According to prosecutors, Luft “subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking US Government official.” The statement did not name the former US official, saying only that at the time he was working as an adviser to then-US president Donald Trump. Luft, it said, “agreed to covertly recruit and pay” the official “on behalf of principals based in China.” US President Joe Biden waves as he walks down the steps of Air Force One at Vilnius International Airport in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 10, 2023. (Susan Walsh/AP) Furthermore, Luft “acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement,” the statement said. Prosecutors said Luft worked to broker a deal for Chinese companies to sell weapons to Libya, including anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers, and mortar rounds on a commission basis. In communications, Luft and his associates used coded language, referring to weapons as “toys,” they said. Other alleged brokering activities were for potential deals to the United Arab Emirates that included aerial bombs and rockets. Another alleged deal was for Chinese weapons to be sold to Kenya, including strike drones. The statement said Luft also discussed brokering a deal for a weapons sale to Qatar, allegedly telling an associate that Israel was “not a good fit” as the middleman for the deal because it had the “ame problem the [] Q [i.e., Qataris] have w uncle [i.e., the United States]. Need a third party. . . . I will activate.” Luft, 57, was arrested in February in Cyprus on US charges, but fled after he was released on bail awaiting extradition proceedings, prosecutors said. Luft remains at large and the US Justice Department is asking for information on his whereabouts. A Twitter account under Luft’s name has claimed he was arrested in Cyprus “on a politically motivated extradition request by the US.” “I’ve never been an arms dealer,” one post asserted shortly after he vanished in Cyprus. In a video published by the New York Post last week, Luft said that in 2019 he provided evidence to US Justice Department and FBI officials on what he said were Biden family financial transactions with the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC. The information, he claimed, was then covered up. Republican Senator Ron Johnson accused the government of a coverup. “He’s got a wealth of information. But they never followed up on that meeting,” Johnson said recently on Fox News. “Instead, they arrested him in Cyprus to silence him.” Luft also got support earlier this week from Frank Gaffney, executive chairman of the Center for Security Policy think tank, who tweeted, “These days Dr. Luft might be better known as ‘David’ for he now faces alone the Goliath of a US government determined to crush him to protect President Joe Biden.” With Biden ramping up his bid for a second term as president in the 2024 election, Republicans in Congress accused the Biden family in May of pocketing more than $10 million from dealings with Chinese and Romanian firms — though they offered little evidence. These accusations are part of a long-running campaign targeting Hunter Biden, the president’s son and only surviving child of his first marriage. Republicans accuse Hunter Biden of capitalizing on his father’s influence when he served as vice president under Barack Obama in order to engage in shady dealings in several countries. The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security reportedly did not respond to media requests for comment.