SCOOP: Billionaire Musk foe Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, bankrolls second Trump resistance under "nonpartisan" banner🧵 1/6
Some background: The New York Times and other outlets recently profiled the existence of a new Democratic governors-led Trump “resistance” group, noting its funding was unclear as it preps to coordinate state-level pushback to the incoming administration
It's called “Governors Safeguarding Democracy" 2/6
The parent for GSD, @dcexaminer found, is quietly backed by left-wing billionaire Pierre Omidyar — a key financier of entities leading corporate boycott campaigns against @X owner @elonmusk
The funding to the umbrella charity for “Governors Safeguarding Democracy" would be untraceable for several years because of IRS reporting lag. However, it's buried in Omidyar’s Democracy Fund grants database 3/6
Omidyar, the disclosures show, recently gifted substantial funding to a legal group associated with Marc Elias — the RussiaGate lawyer involved in the PA Senate race recount to thwart Republican @DaveMcCormickPA's victory in a last-ditch effort 4/6
“Governors Safeguarding Democracy” is being led by J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Jared Polis of Colorado, a pair of blue state governors. It claims to be nonpartisan.
The new Trump resistance group says it will "develop playbooks to enable governors and their teams to anticipate and swiftly respond to emerging threats” from Republicans in the name of—GSD says—Capital D-Democracy 5/6
NEW: The FBI is being pressed by House Oversight Chair James Comer to promptly turn over information on a China-linked research institute that Tim Walz helped secure funding for and—as I reported at @dcexaminer —is a partner of the CCP-run Wuhan Institute of Virology. 🧵
"Recent reports indicate Mr. Walz, while in Congress, 'helped secure over $2 million' and 'pushed for a $5 million federal earmark' for the Hormel Institute, which [has] a history of working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China," @RepJamesComer told FBI Director Christopher Wray.
"The Committee is concerned that Mr. Walz’s involvement with Chinese entities and officials may have allowed the CCP to influence his decision-making as a congressman and governor and potentially would allow the CCP to influence the White House should Mr. Walz be elected vice president," he said.
Comer, who said the FBI told @GOPoversight its Foreign Influence Task Force investigates "this kind of CCP activity," cited how ex-Hormel Institute director Dr. Zigang Dong resigned in 2019 upon the FBI investigating his failure to report foreign backing when applying for grants.
1) Here's Tim Walz with Dong in 2014.
2) Here's Tim Walz's then-legislative director Tim Bertocci, now working at the Pentagon, and former deputy chief of staff Sara Severs, now chief of staff at Minnesota's Transportation Department, with Dong in 2016.
EXCLUSIVE: The State Department, joined by the likes of the Poynter Institute, Clemson University, disinfo professor Kate Starbird, and Snopes, have secretly coordinated on a "fake news" listserv targeting conservative media, according to documents obtained by @dcexaminer 🧵1/4
In one example, in 2021, personnel from the State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy and Snopes founder David Mikkelson took aim at @DailyCaller — with Mikkelson trying to determine its funders. 2/4
State's Global Engagement Center has been on this listserv despite its mandate, like NED, to focus on foreign matters. That's a problem, according to House Republicans, who want to defund the GEC.
Some of these documents were obtained by @dcexaminer through the Freedom of Information Act, and others are cited in a new report by Congress. 3/4
EXCLUSIVE: Biden’s State Department is now facing a congressional subpoena for failing to turn over documents on ‘censorship-by-proxy’ funding to outside organizations, @dcexaminer has learned 🧵1/4
The subpoena, served to State’s Global Engagement Center from House Republicans, demanded sprawling records by June 27
It’s the latest development in a House investigation launched after @dcexaminer reports on the Global Disinformation Index blacklisting conservative media. 2/4
The subpoena comes as State’s GEC may lose funding via Congress over the $100K Global Disinformation Index grant and others lawmakers say promoted widespread censorship of disfavored speech.
@FDRLST and @realdailywire are suing GEC over the ‘disinfo’ programs 3/4
SCOOP: The Department of Homeland Security/its CISA had privately "recommended" the State Department contact the Election Integrity Partnership, which worked to suppress speech on social media before the 2020 presidential election, according to internal emails
When did State Global Engagement Center reach out to EIP — which it helped flag "misinformation" posts to social media platforms?
. . . Just hours after @nypost's bombshell Hunter Biden story suppressed by Twitter, a key partner of EIP, on Oct. 14, 2020
cc @EmmaJoNYC
The unearthed coordination between DHS/State on EIP raises further concerns to Republicans, including on @JudiciaryGOP, about why a foreign-focused agency in the GEC would ever get involved in the EIP.
The EIP worked to systemically suppress posts by Trump/other Republicans
The DC Attorney General has closed its investigation into left-wing dark money kingpin Arabella Advisors, a lawyer for Arabella groups confirms to @dcexaminer
But a lawyer for one ex-employee in the Arabella network has thoughts:
Lawyer Timothy Parlatore for Sarah Walker, a former New Venture Fund employee suing the Arabella group over alleged racial and gender discrimination, indicated to me he thinks the investigation was prematurely closed
Walker’s case is headed to discovery, @AndrewKerrNC reported
“The last thing you want, if you’re a truly honest, nonpartisan law enforcement officer, is to come to a hasty decision and then have a civil suit that reveals information you should have uncovered before making your decision.”