A senior State Department official requested internal records on dozens of individuals and organizations perceived as enemies of the political right as part of a probe into alleged conservative censorship.
State Department Undersecretary Darren Beattie filed an 11-page request in March for all records of internal communication related to 39 individuals and 16 organizations who track disinformation or criticized President Donald Trump and his allies, according to MIT Technology Review.
The request, which was framed as a “transparency” initiative, reportedly targeted names like former U.S. Cybersecurity official Chris Krebs, who denied Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, anti-Trump pundit Bill Kristol, The Atlantic reporter Anne Applebaum, and even tech mogul Bill Gates.
The State Department also sought documents and correspondence from staff that mentioned controversial names such as Trump, Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Joe Rogan, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as keywords like Black Lives Matter, January 6, Q-Anon, immigration, and anti-vaxx.
Beattie, a conservative journalist who was fired as speechwriter during the first Trump administration for appearing with white nationalists, reportedly told State Department officials that he aimed to release internal agency documents “to rebuild trust with the American public.”
In particular, Beattie wanted records held by the agency’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub (R/FIMI), which replaced the now-defunct Global Engagement Center that exposed Russian propaganda and Chinese disinformation operations.
Weeks after Beattie’s request, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the shutdown of R/FIMI.
“Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,” Rubio said. “This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America. That ends today.”
Several people who saw the request told MIT Technology Review that the broad requests for unredacted information felt like a “witch hunt” that could jeopardize the individuals’ privacy and security. Other officials called the request “unusual” and “improper.”
“It stank to high heaven,” one staffer told the publication. “This could be used for retaliation. This could be used for any kind of improper purposes, and our oversight committees should be informed of this.”
By early April, however, Beattie had reportedly received many of the documents he requested.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the State Department for comment.
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