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As RedState reported on Thursday, Nina Jankowicz, former director of DHS’ now defunct Disinformation Governance Board, has mounted a crowdfunding campaign claiming she is suing Fox News for spreading lies and misinformation about her.

Fox News lied about me hundreds of times to tens of millions of people. Help me hold them accountable for the harm they do.https://t.co/m7O8m50OPmhttps://t.co/4K7RgedI90

— Nina Jankowicz (@wiczipedia) March 2, 2023

As I stated in that article, good luck. Even attorney and commentator Jonathan Turley has assessed that Jankowicz is attempting to trample all over the First Amendment on this one, which is on brand for someone whose “dream job” was to head a disinformation arm of the government in the first place. Turley also pointed out that according to legal precedent, she will probably not succeed.

From Turley’s blog, cleverly titled, “The Mary Poppins of Defamation?“:

Even if Jankowicz is seriously thinking of suing Fox News, she faces considerable factual and legal challenges. Under New York Times v. Sullivan. the Supreme Court crafted the actual malice standard that required public officials to shoulder the higher burden of proving defamation. Under that standard, an official would have to show either actual knowledge of its falsity or a reckless disregard of the truth. The same standard applies to public figures. Jankowicz was a public official when these comments began and she is now a public figure.

Ironically, this is precisely the environment in which the opinion was written and she is precisely the type of plaintiff that the opinion was meant to deter. The Court was seeking to protect the media from efforts to deter coverage and commentary through the threat of civil lawsuits. The Supreme Court ruled that tort law could not be used to overcome First Amendment protections for free speech or the free press. The Court sought to create “breathing space” for the media by articulating that standard that now applies to both public officials and public figures.

In this case, there were good-faith reasons for denouncing the work of this Board and the views of Jankowicz.

Oh, indeed, and anyone with half a brain understood this. Not to mention that the clips, videos, tweets, and written information that Fox News (and other outlets, to be honest) chose to highlight were out there for all the world to see. Jankowicz was neither ashamed of any of this, nor interested in hiding it until she was challenged on it. If you are being appointed by an executive branch government official as an expert or arbiter on such things as “disinformation, misinformation, and mal-information,” for the entire United States government, then you should expect to be challenged by the fourth estate and the taxpayers who are the ones paying your salary.

Jankowicz had spent a good part of her career cozying up with the corrupt government in Ukraine, so I guess the concept of actual journalists, taxpayers, and American citizens pushing back is completely lost on her. Senator Josh Hawley grilled Department of Homeland Security Chief Mayorkas on his choice of Jankowicz for this position, when she herself has been complicit in spreading “disinformation, misinformation, and mal-information” that compromised national security. Hawley rightly calls her, “a human geyser of misinformation.”

Turley goes on to reveal another interesting point that other outlets appear to be overlooking.

Jankowicz’s self-portrayal as a defender of free speech is not shared by many of us in the free speech community. She is one of the leading advocates for disinformation regulations and de facto censorship. Moreover, the board was rightfully denounced as part of this insidious effort and even the Biden Administration abandoned it.

In the end, it is not clear how $100,000 could even fund the initial stage of a lawsuit against Fox. There is no guarantee that it would be used for that purpose. On her GoFundMe page, Jankowicz lists other uses for the money including “security” and “protecting me and my family.” She also lists “current costs” as including lawsuits where she is a defendant or investigations calling her as a witness. However, the video pitch only mentions using the money to sue Fox News, which will resonate more readily with many potential donors.

If she were to launch a defamation action, her greatest challenge is not the money but the governing case law. Jankowicz faces considerable tort and constitutional headwinds in seeking to sue over criticism of her career and views.

The bolded text is my emphasis because it needs to be delved into more deeply. PACER, a government database that lists legal filings in U.S. federal courts, identifies three lawsuits to which Nina Jankowicz is a party.

Well, isn’t that something?

RedState has covered the yeoman’s work done by now-Senator and former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt to expose the federal government’s collusion with Big Tech to silence free speech here, here, and here. The suit in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has since been closed, but Jankowicz still has been subpoenaed to testify in the ongoing suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

I wrote this because I genuinely meant it. I have a massive list this week, a large part of it being Missouri v. Biden, which I argue is the most important civil liberties case in modern history. But very few other people will read thousands of pages of court documents to give… https://t.co/BY60AplPY5

— Tracy Beanz (@tracybeanz) March 6, 2023

Jim Jordan (R-OH), Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, has also been requesting Jankowicz’s presence and testimony. So far, Jankowicz has been avoiding these requests.

The House Committee on the Judiciary has made “several requests” to former Disinformation Governance Board head Nina Jankowicz for “information relating to” the activities of that Board, but as yet, the information has not been forthcoming.

In the event that Jankowicz continues to avoid compliance, “The Committee is prepared to resort to compulsory process,” Jordan writes, “if necessary, to obtain your testimony and this material.

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to conduct oversight of matters involving civil liberties, including free speech and the First Amendment, pursuant to the Rules of the House of Representatives.”

The requests, writes Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan in a letter to Jankowicz, were made between May and December 2022, and while attorneys for Jankowicz have “belatedly contacted the Committee,” those “requests are still outstanding.” Jankowicz presence has been requested for an interview before the Committee as well.

So, Jankowicz is having lots of face time with attorneys, and not just about this spurious Fox News lawsuit which, as of this writing, hasn’t even been filed yet.

However, it is the third lawsuit listed, Goodman v. Bouzy et. al, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, that begs a more detailed look. A journalist named Jason Goodman who writes and reports under his own channel, Crowdsource the Truth, has filed suit against several individuals, one of them being Nina Jankowicz. Why, you might ask? Goodman alleges that several parties, including Jankowicz, colluded to defame his character and shut down his investigative reporting. Goodman is seeking damages for fraud, defamation, abuse of process, civil conspiracy, and racketeering charges. That’s a huge, and potentially costly nut to crack for all parties involved.

On May 19, 2022, in the midst of Nina Jankowicz’s disinformation tour, Goodman published a detailed report on Jankowicz called, “Disinfo Diva or Dangerous Double Agent?” Goodman focused on Jankowicz’s organization: Sophias Strategies, LLC.

Here are the organization’s stated goals and meaning as explained by Jankowicz herself:

Expert-led research, analysis, and training in service of a wiser world.

My paternal grandmother’s name was Sophie. She was Ukrainian-American, from a family that emigrated to the United States after World War I. On my mother’s side, my grandparents emigrated from Poland and England after the Second World War. This family history — one of immigrants, refugees, and hard work — profoundly impacted my interests and my values. Sophias believes there is wisdom in honoring our roots and cherishing diversity in experience and background.

At my alma mater, Bryn Mawr College, first year students are welcomed into the community with lanterns, symbolizing the gift of knowledge. To mark the night, they sing a song that begins “friends of wisdom, let us gather,” — “sophias philae paromen” — and ends “kalon to althon, elpis megale” — “noble is the struggle; great is the hope.” Sophias stands for the struggle and hope that the democratic project embodies for all citizens.

No one truly knows what this gobbledygook means, or if Jankowicz’s lineage even pans out, as the information is closely guarded. As of this writing, the Sophias Strategies LLC website does not even exist. Save for some archived snapshots I was able to acquire, the information has been scrubbed.

Seems a tad suspect.

Goodman alleged in his report that Jankowicz’s organization worked with foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and that Jankowicz was still involved in this work while she had been appointed as director of the Disinformation Governance Board. However, Jankowicz was not registered under the Foreign Agent’s Registration Act (FARA). As RedState reported, Jankowicz has done foreign agency work for many years, and her LinkedIn page bears this out. Jankowicz held not one but two fellowships with the Wilson Center think tank from 2017 to 2020, where she was affiliated with the Kennan Institute and the Science and Technology Innovation Program. In the midst of that period (2016-2017), she was also a fellow with Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy, where she lived for a time in Ukraine advising the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on disinformation and strategic communications. Jankowicz was a consultant for Centre Strategies from January to March of 2022, supposedly right before she took the role at DHS. Centre Strategies is a British-based organization. However, Jankowicz only registered under FARA on November 18, 2022, when she took a full-time position with them, after that prior consultancy work.

These are facts that any thinking person would be curious about, especially a journalist. It is also something that is also suspect. I’m old enough to remember when Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman for then-President Donald Trump, was indicted under the Mueller probe. One of the charges? Acting as a foreign agent without registering under FARA.

According to Time,

a “unregistered agent of a foreign principal” and issuing “false and misleading FARA statements,” by not properly disclosing the nature of the consulting he did for a Kremlin-linked Ukrainian political party.

Would four years and two months of being a fellow with the Wilson Center in Ukraine not count under this? Or does the Wilson Center give her cover? The Wilson Center still has videos of Jankowicz’ “expert” analysis on Ukraine and Russia during that period. Goodman incorporated some of these in his report.

Note this video from around 2019-2020. Listen to the way Jankowicz speaks, almost as if she is the national security adviser for Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine, rather than a United States citizen and representative for a United States-based think tank.

Jankowicz also admits she spends a lot of time in Ukraine. Curioser and curiouser.

According to the Goodman v. Bouzy et. al court pleading, Jankowicz resigned from her role in the Disinformation Governance Board two days after Goodman published his report. Goodman did some follow-up reporting on the fact that Jankowicz only registered under FARA in late November 2022. The pleading states that Jankowicz made a false statement to Twitter that Goodman published her private information, causing Twitter to lock Goodman’s Crowdsource the Truth account. For those not aware, FARA is a public database, and other news outlets have pulled up Jankowicz’s signed registration form and disseminated it widely. So, if Jankowicz did indeed libel Goodman, Goodman’s claims of defamation would seem to have some merit.

The pleading also states,

On January 9, 2023, upon learning Goodman would travel to Florida to care for an elderly family member, with the assistance of Sweigert and in violation of 18 U.S. Code §§ 1343, 1503, 1513, and 1951, Jankowicz made false statements to law enforcement in Arlington, VA claiming Goodman had threatened her order to wrongfully obtain a preliminary order of protection against Goodman. (EXHIBIT F).

It appears there is lots of meat on Jankowicz’s legal bones. Should Goodman prevail in furthering this lawsuit, the vultures will have much to pick at. If nothing else, the House of Representatives Oversight Committee subpoenas will keep on coming for at least the next two years, so Jankowicz’s bills will no doubt keep mounting.

Let’s return to Jonathan Turley’s revelation on how Jankowicz really plans to spend this money:

On her GoFundMe page, Jankowicz lists other uses for the money including “security” and “protecting me and my family.” She also lists “current costs” as including lawsuits where she is a defendant or investigations calling her as a witness. However, the video pitch only mentions using the money to sue Fox News, which will resonate more readily with many potential donors.

In the event that information gets modified or scrubbed, I have supplied a screenshot from Nina Jankowicz’s GoFundMe appeal.

So essentially, even though Jankowicz’s video pitch claims she is going after Fox News, what she is really doing is using them as red meat to her Leftist base who despise the organization and would like to see it bloodied, if not completely destroyed. This, in turn, gets her media coverage, sympathy, and big dollars from the people who love to pour money into such causes. I’m surprised the Soros Foundation hasn’t picked up this cause. The campaign has only been up for three days, so we’ll give it some time.

Personally, I have no issue with crowdfunding and asking for help for such things. Our own Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar has presented a similar appeal for help with legal expenses because the egregious former Congresswoman Katie Hill sued Van Laar (and others), lost, then filed for bankruptcy when she was holding the bag for the legal debts. My issue is doing it under the pretext of waging a legal battle against a news organization where you know you have little chance of prevailing, and when you know the money will not be used towards those ends. This goes beyond “disinformation,” to rank dishonesty. Van Laar’s appeal is about protecting her First Amendment rights as a journalist. Jankowicz’s appeal is about owning a news organization she hates and grifting money for her legal fees and security concerns.

As of March 5, Jankowicz has raised over $12,000 dollars of her $100,000 goal, and her campaign has only been live for three days. In contrast, Van Laar’s GoFundMe campaign is over a year old, and she has only raised $20,000 of her $95,000 goal. It’s quite a contrast of the two networks. Van Laar is a working single mother and independent journalist. The donations from her network range from $5-$250.00 dollars per donor. Nina Jankowicz, on the other hand, is a globally connected, D.C. doyenne. Her donors range from $100-$1,000. Jankowicz is associated with people who have deep pockets and worldwide alliances. So why, pray tell, is she allowed to mount this campaign, especially under deceptive pretenses?

It makes the blood boil, especially this last part of her appeal.

This list only represents some of my current costs and needs, and over the course of this lawsuit, my legal and security needs may change.

Rest assured that I will not waste, divert, or profit from your donations. Any funds raised in excess of protecting me and my family will be used to support other women and people of intersectional identities who find themselves in situations similar to mine. These problems—online abuse, domestic disinformation, politically-motivated Congressional investigations—are not going away any time soon. Just as I hold my ground against the forces that seek to silence me, I hope to empower others to do the same.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and support.

Since Jankowicz claims the funds will be used to support other women who find themselves in situations like hers, Jennifer Van Laar and other conservative women who have been wrongfully targeted and threatened should contact Jankowicz so she can contribute financially, and truly share their pain. None of us will be holding out any hope of that ever happening.