Judicial Watch has acquired 110 pages of significantly redacted documents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. These documents reveal that, around the 2020 election period, state election officials identified online content they considered “misinformation” and reported it to various entities including the Center for Internet Security (CIS), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), and other groups.
The records were released in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed in November 2022, which sought communications between CISA, a branch of DHS, and the EIP. The lawsuit was initiated after DHS did not respond to an FOIA request from October 2022. The documents include a specific email report dated November 4, 2020, from CIS to Brian Scully, who leads CISA's Mis-, Dis-, Malinformation (MDM) branch. This report was originally sent by the Washington State secretary of state’s office.
The Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), which began as the Election Misinformation Partnership, was established just before the November 3, 2020, election. Its staff was tasked with round-the-clock monitoring of online election content, with a particular focus on rapidly spreading ‘disinformation’.
Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, commented on the records, stating that “The records provide more disturbing evidence of a conspiracy by federal, state, and ‘private’ actors to censor Americans on social media during a presidential campaign.” He affirmed that Judicial Watch remains dedicated to revealing the government's role in an ongoing and unprecedented infringement on First Amendment rights.
Read the DHS records here.
Read more here. (Judicial Watch)
