Nina Jankowicz, previously the head of the Biden administration’s ill-fated “Disinformation Governance Board,” is teaming up with liberal operatives to head a new nonprofit aimed at “increasing the cost of lies that undermine our democracy.”
The American Sunlight Project, Jankowicz’s new outfit, recently launched, sending a letter to the Republican-led House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on April 22 criticizing them for their investigation of individuals and organizations encouraging censorship. Though the group stresses its bipartisan credentials, its staff and advisory board are composed largely of alumni of left-wing activist organizations.
Jankowicz led an effort pushed by the Department of Homeland Security to clamp down on purported disinformation by establishing the “Disinformation Governance Board” in 2022. The project was shuttered months later after it was harshly criticized as a prelude to government-encouraged censorship.
Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said the board was a “terrible idea” and would signal to the world that “we’re going to be spreading propaganda in our own country,” the Associated Press reported. “Rather than police our border, Homeland Security has decided to make policing Americans’ speech its top priority,” Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said around the same time.
Another angle of criticism at the time was that Jankowicz had herself promoted misleading naratives.
Jankowicz, for instance, said the Hunter Biden laptop was nothing more than a product of former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in 2020. Since then multiple outlets, including the Daily Caller News Foundation, have authenticated the laptop.
Jankowicz also said the debunked Steele dossier was the product of a Republican-funded operation in a 2017 tweet.
Eddie Vale, a spokesperson for The American Sunlight Project, was reluctant to share details about the future operations and the finances of Jankowicz’s new operation when reached by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“We will obviously share more publicly as things develop but aren’t going to be showing everyone our entire playbook on day one,” he told the DCNF when asked if the organization would engage in political advertising or lobbying.
The organization told the New York Times that it would run advertisements about the threats it believes disinformation poses to the public.
Since The American Sunlight Project is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, it can pay for ads supporting or opposing candidates for federal office, per federal law.
Vale noted that the immediate focus of the group is targeting House Republicans who have opposed so-called disinformation research, getting them to release the transcripts of disinformation researchers they’ve interviewed.
Republicans in the House, chiefly the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, have used the power of subpoena to make individuals claiming to study “disinformation” testify under oath.
Vale declined to provide the DCNF with a detailed accounting about the quantity or source of The American Sunlight Project’s financial resources, disclosing only that it has a budget of at least $1 million and that it has “been getting a steady stream of online donations” since its launch was announced.
Vale’s biography on his company’s website describes him as “a veteran of Democratic and progressive political and legislative campaigns,” further complicating The American Sunlight Project’s bipartisan branding. Vale is also a former vice president of American Bridge, a research organization focused on dredging up information to damage conservatives, often for Democratic campaigns.
Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, The American Sunlight Project’s cofounder, is also a product of the left-wing activism industry. Between 2020 and 2021, he oversaw “organization-wide strategic communications and media relations” for Protect Democracy, according to his LinkedIn.
Protect Democracy refers to the joint operations of two separate nonprofits, the 501(c)(3) Protect Democracy Project and the 501(c)(4) group United to Protect Democracy, according to the organization’s website.
Democratic megadonors, left-wing dark money networks and George Soros’ philanthropic empire have dumped millions into Protect Democracy since it was founded. The organization launched successful legal efforts to block former Trump’s border wall plans and to void all non-disclosure agreements from his 2016 presidential campaign, among other things, according to the organization’s website.
Most of The American Sunlight Project’s advisory board also has ties to the left.
Emily Horne, who was a Biden White House official between 2021 and 2022, sits on the organization’s advisory board. Ineke Mushovic was the executive director of Wide Angle Research, a left-wing nonprofit that produces messaging aimed at changing people’s opinions on LGBT issues, abortion, guns and immigration, among other things, and also sits on the board.
One of The American Sunlight Project’s board members, Katie Harbath, has worked on Republican campaigns, according to her biography on the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service’s website.
