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Trump official targeted in Biden-era ‘disinformation’ dossier still under wraps days after Rubio revelation
The identity of a Trump administration official who was allegedly targeted by the Biden administration’s State Department in a «disinformation» dossier remains a mystery nearly two weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed details on the file.
Rubio revealed at the most recent Trump administration Cabinet meeting April 30 that an unidentified Trump administration official who was present had been the subject of a State Department dossier detailing alleged promotion of social media «disinformation.»
Rubio, the State Department and the White House have not yet identified which official the Biden administration targeted. Fox News Digital has reached out repeatedly to the White House regarding the identity of the official, including on Monday, but did not receive replies.
When asked for an update on the identity of the Trump official, the State Department directed Fox News Digital to Rubio’s April 30 remark, detailing that, «We are going to be turning over these dossiers to the individuals, and they’ll decide whether they want to disclose it or not.»
RUBIO REVEALS OBSCURE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OFFICE KEPT ‘DISINFORMATION’ DOSSIER ON TRUMP OFFICIAL
The Trump administration has not revealed which administration official was targeted by the Biden administration’s State Department in a «disinformation» dossier compiling previous social media posts that identified them as «purveyors of disinformation.» (Getty Images)
Rubio said during the April 30 Cabinet meeting that a little-known, now-defunct office within the State Department called the Global Engagement Center (GEC) had compiled disinformation dossiers on Americans across the country as part of an effort to «censor» free speech, including an individual who has since joined the Trump administration.
«We had an office in the Department of State whose job it was to censor Americans,» Rubio said during the meeting. «And, by the way, I’m not going to say who it is. I’ll leave it up to them. There’s at least one person at this table today who had a dossier in that building of social media posts to identify them as purveyors of disinformation. We have these dossiers. We are going to be turning those over to these individuals.»
Vice President JD Vance interjected, asking, «Was it me or Elon (Musk)? We can follow up when the media is gone,» which drew laughter from the Cabinet.
RUBIO OVERHAULING ‘BLOATED’ STATE DEPARTMENT IN SWEEPING REFORM
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a Cabinet meeting April 30. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
«But just think about that. The Department of State of the United States had set up an office to monitor the social media posts and commentary of American citizens, to identify them as vectors of disinformation,» Rubio continued. «When we know that the best way to combat disinformation is freedom of speech and transparency.»
Though Rubio did not identify which Trump official the Biden administration kept a dossier on, Elon Musk has previously railed against the Global Engagement Center.
«The worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation is an obscure agency called GEC,» Musk posted to X in January 2023. That was more than a year before Musk endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential race and became a fixture of the administration in his temporary role with the Department of Government Efficiency.
«They are a threat to our democracy,» Musk added.
RUBIO ANNOUNCES CLOSURE OF STATE DEPARTMENT EFFORT THAT ‘WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD ALREADY’
Former President Barack Obama established the Global Engagement Center in 2016 through an executive order aimed at coordinating counterterrorism messaging to foreign nations before it expanded its scope to also include countering foreign propaganda and disinformation, State Department documents show.
Conservatives have slammed the office as a political weapon to silence free speech, including Rubio in an April op-ed when he cited a 2020 GEC report claiming that a «Russian disinformation apparatus» was behind public speculation that the coronavirus was an «engineered bioweapon» or was created by «research conducted at the Wuhan institute.»
Marco Rubio said during the April 30 Cabinet meeting that a little-known, now-defunct office within the State Department called the Global Engagement Center (GEC) had compiled disinformation dossiers on Americans across the country as part of an effort to «censor» free speech. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency)
In the years following the pandemic, the Department of Energy under the Biden administration and former FBI Director Christopher Wray said evidence indicated that COVID-19 was the result of a lab leak, while the Trump administration’s CIA reported earlier in 2025 that a lab leak was the likely origin of the virus.
TWITTER BOSS ELON MUSK ACCUSES GOVERNMENT AGENCY OF BEING ‘WORST OFFENDER IN US GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP’
In 2024, lawmakers did not approve new funding for the office in the National Defense Authorization Act, and it was scheduled to terminate on Dec. 23, 2024. The Biden administration, however, shuffled staffers and rebranded the office.
It became the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub just days before Trump’s inauguration, the New York Post reported in January.
Rubio announced in April that the office would officially shutter.
Marco Rubio has railed against the office in previous interviews and op-eds, including authoring an opinion piece for the Federalist in April touting that he was dismantling the «censorship-industrial complex» that had gripped agencies such as the State Department. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
«I am announcing the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),» Rubio said in an April 16 statement announcing the office’s closure.
«Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving,» he wrote. «This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America. That ends today.»
WHITE HOUSE PROPOSAL AXES UN, NATO FUNDS AND HALVES STATE DEPARTMENT BUDGET
Though Marco Rubio did not identify which Trump official the Biden administration kept a dossier on, Elon Musk has previously railed against the Global Engagement Center. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)
Rubio has railed against the office in previous interviews and op-eds, including authoring an opinion piece for the Federalist in April touting that he was dismantling the «censorship-industrial complex» that had gripped agencies such as the State Department.
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«Over the past half-decade, bodies like GEC, crafted by our own governing ruling class, nearly destroyed America’s long free speech history,» he wrote in the op-ed. «The enemies of speech had new lingo to justify their authoritarian impulse. It was «disinformation,» allegedly pushed by nefarious foreign governments, that was the No. 1 threat to ‘our democracy.’ To protect ‘our democracy,’ this ‘disinformation’ had to be identified and stamped out.»
Donald Trump,Joe Biden,Elon Musk,Marco Rubio,White House
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Russia sentences American to 4 years for allegedly trying to take Kalashnikov rifle stocks: report
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An American was sentenced Tuesday to four years in jail in Russia for allegedly trying to fly out of an airport in Moscow with the stocks of Kalashnikov assault rifles in his suitcase, a report said.
The unnamed U.S. citizen, who collects Kalashnikov weapons, did not make a customs declaration after purchasing two stocks and checking a suitcase containing the items at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, Reuters reported, citing the RIA Novosti state news agency.
He later was found guilty under an article of Russian criminal code relating to the smuggling of weapons, it added.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.
RUSSIA UPS JAIL SENTENCE OF US CITIZEN TO 10 YEARS FOR BEATING PRISON STAFF
AK-47 rifles are seen during a training session at a shooting range outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, on the left, in July 2023. On the right are passenger jets at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. An American reportedly was jailed after trying to transport Kalashnikov rifle stocks in a suitcase at the airport. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Russian state media is also claiming the American partially admitted guilt, according to Reuters.
The State Department warns Americans not to travel to Russia «for any reason due to terrorism, unrest, wrongful detention and other risks.»
CHINA PLEDGES AID TO UKRAINE AS US OFFICIALS WARN BEIJING IS QUIETLY FUELING RUSSIA’S WAR
A Kalashnikov of a Ukrainian soldier participating in shooting training is seen in Donetsk region of Ukraine on July 31, 2024. (Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images)
«The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has limited ability to assist in the case of a detention of a U.S. citizen. There is no guarantee that the Russian government will grant the U.S. Embassy consular access to detained U.S. citizens,» the State Department said. «U.S. citizens may serve their entire prison sentence without release. The risk of wrongful detention of U.S. citizens remains high. Even if a case is determined wrongful, there is no guarantee of release.»
A terminal at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, in August 2023. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)
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«Russian officials often question and threaten U.S. citizens without reason. Russian security services have arrested U.S. citizens on false charges,» it added. They have denied them fair treatment and convicted them without credible evidence. Russian authorities have opened questionable investigations against U.S. citizens for their religious activities.»
russia,crime,state department,world
El presidente iraní, Masoud Pezeshkian, afirmó que su país está dispuesto a que haya una verificación de que no busca dotarse de armas atómicas, coincidiendo con el ciclo de negociaciones con Estados Unidos sobre el programa nuclear.
«No estamos buscando en absoluto tener armas nucleares», declaró Pezeshkian en una entrevista publicada este martes. «Si alguien quiere verificarlo, estamos dispuestos a que se lleve a cabo dicha verificación».
Irán y Estados Unidos mantuvieron este martes unas breves negociaciones, en las que no hablaron directamente, sino que se intercambiaron mensajes a través de Omán, en su papel de mediador, y tras las cuales la vía diplomática se mantiene abierta en la búsqueda de un acuerdo sobre el programa nuclear iraní.
Al término del encuentro, el ministro de Exteriores de Irán, Abás Araqchí, declaró que se había logrado «un buen progreso respecto a la sesión anterior» (hace veinte días), que en esta ocasión el ambiente fue «más constructivo e incluso se refirió a avances sobre «una serie de principios rectores», según los cuales se redactará un posible borrador de acuerdo.
«Tenemos una decisión más clara sobre qué acciones deben tomarse», declaró, sin ofrecer detalles de lo conversado.
Más optimismo aún mostró el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Omán, Badr bin Hamad al Busaidi, que hizo de mediador y quien habló de «buenos avances» en la identificación de «objetivos comunes» y de «cuestiones técnicas relevantes».
A través de una declaración por redes sociales, el ministro omaní también se refirió a los esfuerzos que se hicieron para definir los principios a los que se refirió su homólogo iraní, aclarando siempre que queda mucho camino por andar y que habrá otra reunión próximamente.
La figura del director general del Organismo Internacional de la Energía Atómica (OIEA), Rafael Grossi, tomó relevancia en esta segunda ronda de las negociaciones, que se reanudaron tras los ataques de Estados Unidos contra tres instalaciones nucleares iraníes el pasado junio, en una operación conjunta con Israel.
Grossi, quien es candidato a ser secretario general de la ONU, se reunió el lunes con Araqchí, y hoy mismo lo hizo con la delegación estadounidense, que han liderado el enviado especial de la Casa Blanca, Steve Witkoff; y Jared Kushner, yerno del presidente Donald Trump.
En una comparecencia horas después en la Conferencia de Desarme de la ONU, reunida en la sede europea de la organización en Ginebra, Araqchí ofreció algunas claves de lo abordado con Grossi cuando, tras denunciar los ataques estadounidenses de mediados de 2025, dijo que en la actualidad «no existen modalidades» que hagan posible la inspección de las instalaciones afectadas por parte de la OIEA.
«Esas instalaciones requieren un marco acordado mutuamente entre Irán y la agencia. Esto es algo en lo que estamos trabajando», reveló el ministro en ese momento y mostró la disposición de Irán a responder a algunas de las exigencias de Estados Unidos.
Aunque no se sabe con certeza en qué condiciones se encuentran esas plantas, informes de organismos internacionales apuntan a que sufrieron daños significativos.
Sin embargo, durante la jornada también hubo mensajes duros -implícitos y explícitos- de Irán con respecto a Estados Unidos, a su forma de negociar y a sus exigencias, al tiempo que le recomendó actuar con prudencia en relación a sus amenazas de atacar militarmente si el régimen iraní no se pliega a sus exigencias.
A este respecto, Araqchí dijo en la ONU que en caso de que EE.UU. le agreda, su respuesta «no se limitará a sus fronteras», mientras que desde Teherán se anunciaba el cierre durante varias horas para maniobras navales de partes del estrecho de Ormuz, una vía marítima muy importante geopolítica y comercialmente.
Trump ha manifestado su interés por resolver la cuestión nuclear iraní -tras señalar que estaría involucrado a distancia en las negociaciones de hoy-, en particular después de la violenta represión armada de las manifestaciones multitudinarias que tuvieron lugar en las primeras semanas de este año en Irán y en las que murieron miles de personas.
Estados Unidos junto con los otros cuatro países del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, más Alemania, alcanzó en 2015 un acuerdo sobre el programa nuclear iraní, el cual establecía medidas para garantizar que se adecuara únicamente a fines civiles a cambio del alivio de sanciones, pero Trump retiró a su país del mismo en 2018, durante su primer mandato.
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Obama dragged for ‘headache’-inducing presidential center update that has visitors squinting
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Former President Barack Obama’s presidential center in Chicago is again coming under scrutiny for its architectural design — this time leaving locals scratching their heads over confusing text wrapped around the top of the building.
«I’m outside the Obama Center museum tower right now,» Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bay posted to X Monday, sparking a deluge of mockery from locals and conservatives.
«The new letters — an excerpt from Obama’s Selma speech — are tough read to me, giving off the lorem ipsum vibes,» he added, referring to placeholder «dummy» text frequently used in graphic design templates to fill space with scrambled Latin.
Obama’s presidential center — which includes a library, athletic facilities, a museum and more — is slated to open in June after years of delays that included lawsuits and federal reviews of opening the 20-acre campus on Chicago’s South Side.
OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER SLAMMED FOR PROMOTING ‘FAR-LEFT’ AGENDA ON PUBLIC LAND
The text of former President Obama’s speech marking the 50th anniversary of «Bloody Sunday» in Selma, Alabama, is wrapped around the side of the upcoming presidential center in Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The construction includes a 225-foot museum tower with the text of Obama’s 2015 speech in Selma, Alabama, marking the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when civil rights demonstrators were met with violent resistance from local law enforcement in a watershed moment that helped galvanize support for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER JOB LISTINGS PUSH ‘ANTI-RACISM’ PLEDGE AHEAD OF OPENING
The text of Obama’s speech, inscribed on the upper echelon of the tower, reads: «You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.»
Critics of the building had a field day on X in response to the building update, including one user comparing it to a «Klingon prison» in a nod to «Star Trek,» while others lampooned the alleged inability to read the text of the building.
«What don’t you understand about,» Targeted Victory vice president Logan Dobson posted. «YOU ARE AMERICA ED BY HABILAND UNENCUMBERED ADY TO SEIZE WE,» he continued, mocking the confusing lay out of the text.
OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER BREAKS SILENCE OVER CONTROVERSIAL BUILDING DESIGN
Former President Barack Obama’s presidential center in Chicago is facing mounting scrutiny over a speech inscription on the building that has left viewers confused. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
«The dyslexic in me is not amused,» journalist and columnist Salena Zito posted.
«He put his own speech on the outside of his library?» one user posted. «Find yourself someone who loves you like Obama loves himself.»
«I gave up after developing a headache three lines from the top,» one user posted.
PROTESTERS RAGED, CRITICS MOCKED — NOW OBAMA SAYS HIS LIBRARY’S ACTUALLY OPENING
«It looks like a WW2-era German anti-aircraft tower,» another posted.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama gives her remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Sept. 28, 2021. (Sebastian Hidalgo/Reuters)
«I noticed when I was in the air that the sentences wrap around the west and south sides of the building, and looks decent in a very specific spot on the ground or very good from the air…but like that’s not an ideal design in my opinion,» a Chicago photojournalist posted to X.
Other users didn’t take issue with the campus itself, but remarked how the construction is gentrifying the South Side.
«It actually does look good,» one user posted. «Love or hate the guy, at least the presidential library will have a nice park for people to walk through. I get the whole blue vs red thing. But right now the main problem seems to be the gentrification and house price increases in the neighbourhood.»
The main tower of the Obama Presidential Center rises above Jackson Park in Chicago as construction continues on the privately run campus. (Fox 32 Chicago)
The text inscription was preparing for installation at the end of 2025, according to the Obama Foundation’s website.
«At the Museum Building, crews are preparing support structures ahead of the installation of screen text taken from President Obama’s speech «You Are America,» which marked the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches,» the Obama Foundation said in its year-end recap on construction for 2025.
The Obama Foundation has celebrated the center repeatedly since it was first announced more than a decade ago, describing it ahead of its opening as «a lively community hub, economic anchor, and beacon of democracy right here on the South Side of Chicago.»
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The campus has come under scrutiny from locals over gentrification concerns and over its Brutalist-style of architecture, a post-war-era style popularized in the 1950s known for its modular and minimalist designs. For locals in Chicago, they’ve dubbed the building the «The Obamalisk,» according to the New York Post, in a jab at the Brutalist-inspired design.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Obama Foundation for additional comment Tuesday morning.
barack obama,michelle obama,white house,chicago
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