President Donald Trump's acting Secretary of Homeland Security has announced that the department will be ordered to prevent “abuse of resources” following the Biden administration's disastrous attempt to create a Big Brother-style “Disinformation Governance Commission.” has ordered the dissolution of all advisory committees, the Post reported.
In a memo sent out Monday night, Benjamin Huffman ordered the “immediate termination of all current members of DHS's advisory committees.”
“The committee's future activities will be solely focused on furthering our important mission of protecting the homeland and supporting DHS' strategic priorities,” the memo continues.
The Biden administration took a beating in spring 2022 for forming a disinformation control commission. In its mission statement, the commission stated:[t]The spread of disinformation can impact border security, the safety of Americans during disasters, and public trust in democratic institutions. ”
Despite promises to protect “privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties,” the commission's creation was relentlessly attacked by Republicans and free speech advocates, who called it unconstitutional and unethical. It was seen as a flimsy excuse to monitor and suppress speech.
Adding fuel to the firestorm was the fact that the board's director, Nina Jankowicz, had repeatedly questioned the Post's reporting on former eldest son Hunter Biden's laptop.
Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas quietly abolished the board weeks after the board's announcement, and as of April 2024, Jankovitz announced that Russia had “been part of our country” during the 2016 election. He was forced to look for another job as head of a nonprofit organization that he had accused of interfering with democracy.
Before Huffman issued his order Monday night, DHS included several holdover organizations from the Biden administration, including the Homeland Intelligence Advisory Board and the Artificial Intelligence Security Committee.
Kristi Noem, President Trump's nominee for DHS secretary, has vowed to focus the agency's work on direct threats affecting the United States, such as terrorism and migrants rushing to the border.
She also said she would work with President Trump to shut down Biden's border policies that allowed more immigrants into the country.
“Some of these programs need to be abolished,” he told senators during his confirmation hearing last week. “And we need to make sure that we abide by legal immigration laws.” spoke.
