Thread by @sarahleah1

Internal docs show that even after @StateDept terminated @IranDisinfo grant for attacking American rights activists, State continued working w co-founder Mariam Memarsadeghi, to use her other U.S.-funded platforms to distribute Trump #Iran propaganda interc.pt/3mKvppV

Horse's mouth: “Mariam was eager to amplify Ambassador Grenell’s social media/Twitter messages in Farsi through the Tavaana platforms, but she also mentioned her organization was also linked to the @IranDisinfo project that was discontinued”

Horse's mouth, relying on public ignorance to keep funding propagandist who attacked American activists: “To my knowledge, it’s not (widely) public or in the press reporting that Tavaana and IranDisinfo are/were run by the same group ECCE.”

“..@StateDept is playing bait & switch w the American people, announcing it had cut funding to a project that used tax dollars to attack American human rights researchers considered not sufficiently war-hungry on #Iran, but quietly funding the same org under same leadership"

“The real bottom line here is that funding that was meant to counter #ISIS propaganda was morphed into funding to silence activists and experts who want to reform U.S. policy on #Iran.” Your tax dollars at work!

American tax dollars used "to wage online campaigns against groups and individuals based in the U.S. — smearing human rights researchers, former political prisoners in Iran, analysts who are critical of Trump’s Iran policy"