{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-demands-dhs-terminate-new-intelligence-experts-group/", "Hawley Demands DHS Terminate New \u2018Intelligence Experts Group\u2019", "2023-09-28", "2023", "2023-09", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling for the immediate termination of the Department\u2019s newly announced \u201cIntelligence Experts Group.\u201d\n\n\u201cI write with deep concern regarding the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) newly announced \u2018Intelligence Experts Group.\u2019 According to your Department\u2019s press release, this entity will be led by at least three individuals who helped suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story preceding the 2020 U.S. presidential election,\u201d wrote Senator Hawley. \u201cGiven the composition of its members, this Group seems to constitute yet another effort from the Biden Administration to undermine disfavored speech.\u201d\n\nHe continued, \u201cI will continue to oppose this Administration\u2019s apparent efforts to undermine protected speech. Therefore, I urge you to immediately terminate this so-called \u2018Intelligence Experts Group.'\u201d\n\nLast November, Senator Hawley led an investigation into President Biden\u2019s plans to establish the Disinformation Governance Board, similar to the \u201cIntelligence Experts Group.\u201d Senator Hawley revealed documents that exposed the DHS\u2019s plans for the Board to monitor and suppress the speech of American citizens, which were much more extensive than the Biden administration had publicly acknowledged.\n\nRead the full letter here or below.\n\nSeptember 28, 2023\n\nThe Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas\n\nSecretary\n\nU.S. Department of Homeland Security\n\n2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE\n\nWashington, D.C. 20528\n\nDear Secretary Mayorkas,\n\nI write with deep concern regarding the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) newly announced \u201cIntelligence Experts Group.\u201d According to your Department\u2019s press release, this entity will be led by at least three individuals who helped suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story preceding the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Given the composition of its members, this Group seems to constitute yet another effort from the Biden Administration to undermine disfavored speech.\n\nAs you know, John Brennan, James Clapper, and Paul Kolbe all signed onto the infamous October 2020 letter, which falsely declared the Hunter Biden laptop story to be \u201cRussian misinformation.\u201d This was a clear attempt to aid then-candidate Joe Biden. Recent investigations have revealed text messages and emails that corroborate the corrupt intent behind the letter\u2019s publication. It is therefore baffling that your Department would regard these individuals as having any remaining credibility with respect to intelligence matters.\n\nEnlisting the support of these discredited officials as the nation prepares for the 2024 presidential election appears to signal that DHS will continue its attempts to censor speech that is inconvenient to the current Administration. Of course, your Department tried\u2014and failed\u2014to monitor and censor protected speech through the now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board. But thanks to the Fifth Circuit\u2019s ruling in Missouri v. Biden, we know that the White House and other agencies violated the First Amendment by coercing social media platforms to censor online speech. I will continue to oppose this Administration\u2019s apparent efforts to undermine protected speech. Therefore, I urge you to immediately terminate this so-called \u201cIntelligence Experts Group.\u201d\n\nSo that Congress can consider remedial legislation, please provide the following information by October 15, 2023:\n\nAll records related to the Intelligence Experts Group, including but not limited to:\n\nwritten or recorded communications concerning the formation of the Group;\n\nthe agenda or minutes from any meeting at which the Group\u2019s formation was discussed;\n\nany legal review to determine whether the activities of the Group would be authorized by the Constitution of the United States;\n\nany communications or records about the individuals who would be recruited to serve on the Group;\n\nany communications with the White House about the formation of the Group or appointment of officials to serve on the Group.\n\nFor any documents that are responsive to this request but withheld, please identify the name of each document, the date of its creation, the custodian, a summary of its contents, and the basis for withholding the record.\n\nSincerely,", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:35:26Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-demands-dhs-terminate-new-intelligence-experts-group/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9097768925130367, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}