When Department of Homeland SecurityAlejandro Mayorkas was dragged up to Capitol Hill to answer questions from the Senate Appropriations Committee about DHS’ ill-starred Disinformation Governance Board, he insisted two things were true: The board hadn’t begun its work and, when that work began, it wouldn’t involve monitoring American citizens.

New whistleblower documents indicate — wonder of wonder, surprise of surprises — that both those things were untrue.

Now, several Republican senators are demanding that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee get Mayorkas back to the Senate posthaste to answer questions about the documents, which indicate one of the focuses of the DGB was to be so-called “domestic terrorism” and that it had been established several months before it was even announced.

(At The Western Journal, we’ve been bringing readers the latest news and analysis regarding DHS’ Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” — as well as the fallout after the department was forced to “pause” it. We’ll keep reporting the facts, all without the spin Big Tech and the establishment media like to put on them. If you support our work, please consider subscribing.)

The June 14 letter, signed by seven GOP senators and addressed to Senate Homeland Security Committee chair Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, said that the “American public deserves transparency and honest answers to important questions about the true nature and purpose of the Disinformation Governance board and it is clear that Secretary Mayorkas has not provided them — to the public or this Committee.”

“We write to request you convene a hearing with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas as soon as possible to answer critical questions about apparently misleading testimony before the Committee on May 4 on the Department of Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board,” the letter read.

“We are deeply concerned that documents recently obtained by Senators Josh Hawley and Chuck Grassley contradict the Secretary’s testimony and public statements about the Board.”

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The whistleblower documents referenced by the letter — published earlier this month by Sens. Hawley and Grassley — indicated Mayorkas hadn’t told the full truth about the board’s purview.

“Responding to a question from a reporter ‘Will American citizens be monitored?’ Secretary Mayorkas responded unequivocally ‘No,’ adding that ‘We at the Department of Homeland Security don’t monitor American citizens,’” the letter read.

“He went on to suggest the Board would be concentrating on foreign threats — ‘addressing the threat of disinformation from foreign state adversaries from the cartels.’ Yet talking points prepared by Jankowicz, the Board’s then–Executive Director appear to show that the Department does in fact monitor American citizens and that the Board’s work is concentrated on domestic threats.”

Numerous documents in the whistleblower dump reference “domestic violent extremism,” or “DVE,” as being one of the main roles of the DGB.

In addition, the documents indicated that “conspiracy theories about the validity and security of elections” and “disinformation related to the origins and effects of COVID-19 vaccines or the efficacy of masks” were also reasons for the board’s conception.

Another lie reportedly revealed by the documents? Despite insisting that no work had been done, Mayorkas had apparently convened the board months before it was announced.

“At the May 4 hearing, Secretary Mayorkas testified that the Board ‘has not yet begun its work,’” the letter read.

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“Yet the documents indicate the Secretary had stood up the Board on February 24, 2022 – more than two months earlier. The Board’s charter, signed by the Secretary, required the Board meet ‘regularly’ and ‘no less than once per quarter.’

“Another document dated only six days before Secretary Mayorkas appeared before the Committee provides preparatory materials for a meeting between Under Secretary for Policy Robert Silvers and Twitter. The document was prepared by Ms. Nina Jankowicz in her capacity as ‘Executive Director DHS Disinformation Governance Board,’ clearly evidencing that the Board had already begun its work.”

The lawmakers — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida — “request you hold a hearing with Secretary Mayorkas and join us in insisting that all records related to the Board be provided to the Committee prior to the hearing.”

Despite the fact that the whistleblower documents have gotten lost in the news cycle shuffle, this is a bigger deal than the mainstream media is letting on.

Appearing on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” earlier in the month, Hawley explained that, if accurate, they prove that American citizens are “the people that the Biden administration thinks are the real threat to America.”

It’s not the drug cartels,” Hawley said. “It’s not foreign threats. It’s you, it’s the American people.

“If you have questions about COVID, if you have questions about COVID masks, you have questions about the COVID vaccine, this administration wanted you to be monitored. This disinformation board was set up to go after you. That’s what the documents say.”

Nina Jankowicz may be gone and the board may be “paused.” This saga isn’t over yet, though — because, if the Biden administration really views its enemy as the American people, just quashing one nascent agency isn’t going to get at the root problem, especially not if the president’s cabinet is determined to cover up its true intentions.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.