The head of President Joe Biden’s new Disinformation Governance Board has in the past peddled debunked claims that there are ties between Russia and Donald Trump, old and recently resurfaced tweets reveal.
Nina Jankowicz took to Twitter to promote several allegations from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, including allegations now being investigated by Special Counsel John Durham.
In November 2016, Jankowicz, a Russian “expert” on misinformation, tweeted: “Husband texted me: ‘You have news to wake up to.’ Never thought it would be this. Confirms our worst fears about Trump. I am horrified.”
She reposted Clinton’s tweet claiming “it’s time for Trump to answer serious questions about his ties to Russia,” along with a screenshot showing the then-candidate had an “intelligence service” with which he communicated privately with Russia’s Putin-linked Alfa Bank.
“Trump had not one, but two secret email servers to communicate with the influential Russian bank. Unbelievable,” she followed in another tweet with a link to an article by someone who was fed stories of alleged links between Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin by opposition research firm Fusion GPS.
Durham’s team has cast doubt on Alfa Bank’s claims — as have the FBI, the CIA, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Democratic cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann has been charged by Durham with concealing the identities of his clients, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign, when he reported Alfa Bank’s now-debunked claims to the FBI.
The head of the DHS Disinformation Governance Board, Nina Jankowicz (pictured), has a long history of spreading now-disproved claims linking Donald Trump and his campaign to Russia
Several of Jankowicz’s previous tweets show her pushing through claims made by Hillary Clinton and her 2016 campaign staff
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new Disinformation Governance Board has faced backlash from Republicans who claim it is being used to attack conservative voices.
Donald Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday that one of the top priorities in the Republican election to Congress was to disband Biden’s new Disinformation Governance Board now.
“One of our top priorities will be to curb leftist censorship and restore freedom of speech in America,” Trump said during a rainy, chilly, and extremely muddy rally in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, supporting Dr. Mehmet Oz for the US Senate. “We have no freedom of speech.”
“We have no free speech and we have a totally corrupt press, everyone back there,” Trump said, pointing to the cameras and press documenting the event.
“We will be terminating Joe Biden’s so-called disinformation board immediately, how about this one?” said Trump. “A terrifying and un-American seizure of power that we will not allow.”
Jankowicz has also come under fire for her earlier comments, which Republicans claim show their bias.
On November 6, 2014, Jankowicz wrote that “what began months ago with me joking about Donald Trump’s ‘bromance’ with Putin has actually become an existential threat to our country.”
She claimed at the time that after Trump lost the election, which he didn’t, “we never have to talk about him again (until Putin grants him Russian citizenship).”
The so-called Russian disinformation expert has cited Christopher Steele as another disinformation expert and referred to his dossier, many parts of which contain questionable claims that have now been refuted.
She has also cast doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, claiming it is a “Trump campaign product.”
Donald Trump said during a rally Friday in Pennsylvania that dissolving the DHS Disinformation Governance Board is a top priority for Republicans
In September 2016, Jankowicz tweeted that “Trump’s ties with the Kremlin do not end in Manafort. This is serious folks.’
Included in that post was a message quoting Clinton spokesman Glen Caplin.
“It is chilling to learn that US intelligence officials are investigating alleged meetings between Trump’s foreign policy adviser Carter Page and members of Putin’s inner circle,” Caplin said in the article.
Jankowicz shared a link to a now-deleted Medium post on Twitter in June 2016, which included a mural of Trump kissing Russian President Vladimir Putin, and an article about Trump’s campaign titled “Putin’s Puppet” in July.
“But do we want a president who has so many shady and cozy ties to Russia? no So yes, this piece is a must-read,” Jankowicz wrote in the July tweet.
In August of that year, she tweeted, “Manafort isn’t Trump’s only connection to #Russia and #Putin.”
She shared a statement from the Democratic National Committee’s national press secretary, Mark Paustenbach, which claimed Trump’s campaign had “strong ties to Russia and pro-Kremlin elements.”
Timeline of claims made by Nina Jankowicz, head of Joe Biden’s Disinformation Governance Board
June 2016 – Shared a link to a now-deleted Medium post showing a mural of Donald Trump kissing Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Putin’s Russia is not a country that any American voter would emulate. The United States should not elect a demagogue who intends to do just that,” she wrote at the time.
July 2016 – Jankowicz linked to a Foer article titled “Putin’s Puppet” and tweeted: “But do we want a President who has so many shady and cozy ties to Russia? no So yes, this piece is a must.’
August 2016 – “Manafort is not Trump’s only connection to #Russia and #Putin,” she tweeted, while sharing a statement from DNC national press secretary Mark Paustenbach, in which he claimed, “Trump’s campaign still maintains strong ties to Russia and pro-Kremlin elements.”
– She also shared a link to a Clinton campaign article with the comment, “Trump’s bizarre relationship with Russia… foreign policy matters.”
September 2016 – “Trump’s relations with the Kremlin do not end in Manafort. These are serious people,” she warned in a tweet.
November 1, 2016 – ‘Husband texted me ‘You have news to wake up to.’ Never thought it would be this. Confirms our worst fears about Trump. I’m appalled, Jankowicz tweeted. Came in response to a Hillary Clinton campaign tweet that claimed Trump had a “secret server” that he was using to “privately communicate with a Putin-linked Russian bank called Alfa Bank.”
November 6, 2016 – Jankowicz said that “what started months ago with me joking about Donald Trump’s ‘bromance’ with Putin has actually become an existential threat to our country”.
– She said that after Trump’s defeat, “we never have to talk about him again (until Putin grants him Russian citizenship)”
December 2016 – Called Trump “Pinocchio” in response to an official letter from Biden: “It’s not at all far-fetched to ask if Trump is in fact the ‘puppet’ that Secretary Clinton derisively called him.”
March 2017 – Months after Trump took office, Jankowicz tweeted “sermon” in response to a screenshot from a Washington Post article titled “The Clinton campaign warned you about Russia.” But nobody was listening,’ written by Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton campaign communications director.
– Former Russian Ambassador Michael McFaul tweeted that Rep. Adam Schiff “makes a great statement” after including discredited allegations from the Steele dossier in the Congressional Record. Jankowicz tweeted in response, “Agree, and more importantly – explains why examining Trump-Russia relations is an essential part of our democracy.”
June 2020 Jankowicz directly quoted Steele Dossier’s claims in her book How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict
October 15, 2020 – Jankowicz told the Associated Press there were questions as to whether the infamous laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.
“We should look at it as a product of the Trump campaign,” Jankowicz said at the time of the interview, noting the involvement of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump aide Steve Bannon.
