EXCLUSIVE — The State Department has crafted plans to distribute staffers from a shuttered office accused of censoring conservatives to a new internal “hub” that will coordinate its activities, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The Global Engagement Center, the office that Republicans accused of working with groups aiming to demonetize right-leaning media outlets in the United States, shut down in late 2024 upon lawmakers agreeing to no longer fund it. However, in a non-public letter to members of Congress on Dec. 6, the State Department outlined its plans to “realign” more than 50 GEC officials and tens of millions of dollars in funding to a hub purporting to counter foreign interference, documents show.
The plans, which have not been reported on until now, will likely lead to investigations from Republicans into the State Department’s handling of the GEC’s closure. That’s because, according to senior GOP staffers who reviewed them, they appear to indicate that the Biden administration is merely rebranding the GEC under a different name — forming a new body that could be poised to engage in work akin to that which landed the office in hot water over the last two years.
Formed in 2016, the GEC claimed to only counter foreign disinformation, but came under intense criticism for backing the Global Disinformation Index and other groups pressuring advertisers to defund media outlets in the U.S. deemed to peddle disinformation.
In the congressional notification, the State Department identified the newly planned body as a “Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub” that will report to the agency’s Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy.
“Should the authority for the GEC not be extended, the department plans to realign 51 employees and associated funding from the GEC to a proposed Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) Hub reporting to the Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy (R),” the congressional notification said, noting that remaining GEC employees and funding would go to the Bureaus of African Affairs, East Asian and Pacific Affairs, European and Eurasian Affairs, and other offices.
The documents said that the GEC would be transferring 51 employees to the R/FIMI office and, as a whole, $29.4 million in total funding.
They described plans to shuffle around $69 million in GEC funding to offices within the State Department, a sum that the agency said included the funds for the R/FIMI office.
“The Department of State intends to realign $18.2 million in DP Public Diplomacy funding (of which $15.0 million is bureau-managed and $3.2 million is American Salaries) to eight bureaus and one office that will receive U.S. Direct Hire or third-party contract staff from GEC as part of the realignment,” the documents said.
“A further $29.4 million in DP Public Diplomacy funding will be realigned to the R/FIMI hub, including $9.57 million of American Salaries, $16.0 million in bureau-managed funding for contract staff, and $3.9 million for related support operations,” the documents added.
According to one senior GOP aide, GEC’s planned shift to the hub demonstrates that the federal government won’t give up its stake in the domestic disinformation fighting industry “without a fight.”
“Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are going to have to track every single office, down to every single staffer, if they want to end the weaponization of the federal government against conservatives,” said the aide, referring to both the president-elect and his pick for secretary of state. “The State Department is filled with Resistance Democrats who think they got through the first Trump administration and will get through the second the same way.”
A source familiar with the matter said the planned hub would not have the grantmaking power that GEC did. At the same time, besides awarding grants to groups accused of censoring conservatives, the GEC was involved with other initiatives that earned the ire of lawmakers concerned about First Amendment violations.
Meanwhile, top GEC staffers have already resurfaced to work for the most high-ranking officials at the State Department, the agency confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
James P. Rubin, GEC’s former special envoy and coordinator, is now a senior adviser to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Leah Bray, GEC’s former acting coordinator, is chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell.
“Leah, a twenty-two year military veteran, is a noted China expert, respected in bipartisan circles for her knowledge of the Indo-Pacific,” a State Department spokesperson said. “She has worked across multiple presidential administrations and served as President Trump’s Director for China at the National Security Council.”
And Daniel Kimmage, who was principal deputy coordinator for the GEC, is working for the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy’s team, the State Department spokesperson said. Kimmage was notably grilled in an October 2023 congressional hearing by Republicans over apparent GEC “censorship,” though has, along with the State Department’s press office, pushed back on any allegations of wrongdoing.
“Given the evidence shows that the GEC has long ignored its congressional mandate to focus solely on foreign disinformation, its continuation under a so-called hub is extremely troubling,” said Margot Cleveland, an attorney for the New Civil Liberties Alliance. The legal nonprofit group is representing conservative media outlets that are suing the GEC for funding the Global Disinformation Index and a New York-based company called NewsGuard.
The outlets, the Federalist and the Daily Wire, joined the State of Texas in the December 2023 lawsuit accusing the GEC of facilitating “one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation,” according to a complaint.
Cleveland added that the State Department has declined to share the congressional notification as part of the alleged censorship lawsuit with the NCLA’s clients.
They were sent in December to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House Appropriations Committee, and the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The documents obtained by the Washington Examiner, which total six pages, also provide insight into the number of GEC initiatives that are expiring.
“The GEC currently implements 32 projects that will expire or close out following the December 23, 2024, sunset date,” the notice said.
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“GEC currently provides approximately $20 million in support of independent foreign media that has been targeted by hostile state actors,” the notice added. “Helping to combat the silencing of independent media for highly vulnerable overseas communities actively targeted by Russia and the People’s Republic of China is part of the GEC’s critical work. The GEC helps ensure these organizations are able to continue their operations.”
The State Department declined to comment on the congressional notification.