INTERNACIONAL
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.»
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El presidente Donald Trump, a la izquierda, junto al primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu, en el Ala Oeste de la Casa Blanca, el 7 de abril pasado. Foto AP
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FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican wants to build a paper trail of former President Joe Biden’s autopen usage with the end goal of calling more hearings, passing legislation or amending the Constitution to best address «a mentally incapacitated president.»
Sen. Eric Schmitt, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, is requesting special access under the Presidential Records Act to a trove of Biden-era documents and memos that chronicle his usage of an autopen.
In a letter to Secretary of State and Acting National Archivist Marco Rubio exclusively obtained by Fox News, Schmitt argued that creating a paper trail of key directives made toward the end of his presidency would help in «deciding which legislative remedy is most appropriate.»
TOP BIDEN AIDE ADMITS TO CONGRESS SHE DIRECTED AUTOPEN SIGNATURES WITHOUT KNOWING WHO GAVE FINAL APPROVAL
Neera Tanden, the former director of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, testified for more than five hours Tuesday behind closed doors as part of House Republicans’ investigation into the former president’s mental acuity and his use of an automatic signature tool. (Getty Images)
«In particular, the increased use of the autopen to sign pardons, executive orders, and other documents as his Presidency progressed became a poignant symbol of President Biden’s mental decline and has created questions about the validity of those orders and pardons if President Biden did not direct the use of the autopen,» he wrote.
Schmitt requested access to a slew of documents, including memos about procedures for usage of the autopen, who was granted authority to use the autopen and emails from staff authorizing or requesting authorization for autopen usage.
SENATE HEARING ON WHO WAS ‘REALLY RUNNING’ BIDEN WHITE HOUSE KICKS OFF WEDNESDAY
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Dirksen building Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Getty Images)
He also requested access to all White House records after Nov. 1, 2024, that refer or relate to presidential pardons; that prioritize briefing books, memos and decision memos for pardons; and, eventually, access to all White House records after Nov. 1.
«With that information, the subcommittee will be better positioned to ensure that any potential proposed amendment will be sufficiently comprehensive so as to address any plausible contingency concerning a mentally incapacitated President,» Schmitt wrote.
«It would be challenging enough to amend the Constitution once — much less more than once if it then subsequently turned out not all contingencies around presidential incapacity were adequately considered.»
Schmitt’s letter comes after the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Biden’s alleged mental decline while in office and how the autopen could have played a central role in his inner circle’s alleged attempt to skirt the Constitution while continuing to carry out the duties of the office.
EX-WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS TO TESTIFY ON WHO ‘REALLY RAN THE COUNTRY’ DURING BIDEN ERA
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while flying aboard Air Force One en route from Calgary, Canada, to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, late Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
It also explicitly mentions the closed-door, transcribed hearing with Biden’s former director of the Domestic Policy Council, Neera Tanden, conducted by the House Oversight Committee this week.
A source told Fox News Digital that during the transcribed interview, which lasted five hours, Tanden testified she had «minimal interaction with President Biden» in her role as staff secretary and that to obtain autopen signatures, she would send decision memos to members of Biden’s inner circle.
She said during the interview she was not aware of what actions or approvals happened between the time the memo was sent out and returned with approval.
However, Tanden’s opening statement, shared with Fox News Digital by her lawyer, Michael Bromwich, said that, as staff secretary, she was responsible for «handling the flow of documents to and from the President» and that she was authorized to direct that autopen signatures be «affixed to certain categories of documents.»
«We had a system for authorizing the use of the autopen that I inherited from prior Administrations,» Tanden said. «We employed that system throughout my tenure as Staff Secretary.»
She was later named director of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council and said she was no longer responsible for the flow of documents and was no longer involved in decisions related to the autopen.
«I would note that much of the public discussion on the subject matter of this hearing has conflated two very different issues: first, the president’s age and second, whether President Bident was in command as President,» she said. «I had no experience in the White House that would provide any reason to question his command as President. He was in charge.»
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Schmitt requested that access to the swathe of memos and communications be granted no later than July 16.
«It is important for this subcommittee to have a clear picture of President Biden’s decision-making capacity at the end of his presidency and to know the extent to which members of his inner circle possibly usurped the President’s decision-making authority,» he wrote.
Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
INTERNACIONAL
China confirmó el acuerdo sobre tierras raras y exportaciones con EEUU tras una nueva ronda de negociaciones en Londres
China y Estados Unidos alcanzaron un acuerdo definitivo sobre la exportación de bienes estratégicos, incluidas las tierras raras, tras concluir su última ronda de negociaciones en Londres. Así lo confirmó este viernes el Ministerio de Comercio chino mediante un comunicado oficial, en el que informó que ambos gobiernos “mantuvieron una comunicación cercana” tras el encuentro y que “con aprobación, ambas partes confirmaron los detalles del acuerdo”.
El documento aclara que, como parte del entendimiento, “China revisará y aprobará las solicitudes de exportación de bienes controlados que cumplan con las condiciones con arreglo a la ley”, en una clara referencia a las restricciones impuestas por Beijing a principios de abril sobre la venta de minerales críticos como las tierras raras. Estos recursos son fundamentales para industrias clave, como la defensa, la tecnología avanzada o el sector automotriz.
A cambio, Estados Unidos se compromete a eliminar “una serie de medidas restrictivas” adoptadas contra China, aunque el comunicado no detalla cuáles serán levantadas ni en qué plazos. Esta medida corresponde a lo pactado en la conversación del 5 de junio entre el presidente chino Xi Jinping y su homólogo estadounidense Donald Trump, que habilitó la reanudación de los contactos comerciales a nivel técnico.
“Se espera que EEUU y China encuentren un término medio y cumplan con los importantes consensos y requisitos alcanzados por los jefes de Estado”, señala el comunicado, refiriéndose al diálogo presidencial que facilitó la reactivación de las negociaciones formales en la capital británica.
La confirmación de este acuerdo por parte del gobierno chino se produce un día después de que Trump asegurara que “Estados Unidos firmó un acuerdo con China” en una declaración pública, aunque sin ofrecer precisiones. Según había adelantado el mandatario republicano a mediados de junio, el pacto incluye un arancel del 55 % impuesto por EEUU a productos chinos y un 10 % recíproco por parte de Beijing sobre bienes estadounidenses.
El acuerdo de Londres sella un marco de cooperación basado en el “consenso” alcanzado en la llamada presidencial, pero se mantenía pendiente de la ratificación final de ambos líderes. La firma llega tras una serie de tensiones renovadas, motivadas por acusaciones cruzadas de incumplimiento del pacto alcanzado en mayo en Ginebra, que dio origen a una tregua comercial de 90 días.
En el marco de ese entendimiento previo, China había reducido sus aranceles a productos estadounidenses del 125% al 10%, mientras que Washington rebajó los suyos del 145% al 30% sobre bienes chinos. Sin embargo, ambas partes se acusaron mutuamente de violar el acuerdo: Beijing denunció restricciones estadounidenses sobre la exportación de chips de inteligencia artificial y software de diseño de semiconductores, así como medidas migratorias contra estudiantes chinos. Washington, por su parte, criticó las limitaciones chinas sobre la exportación de tierras raras.
La disputa comercial entre ambos países se intensificó desde el regreso de Donald Trump a la Casa Blanca, con una renovada ofensiva arancelaria que reactivó la guerra comercial iniciada en 2018. Esta escalada ha derivado en una situación de embargo parcial, con efectos globales sobre cadenas de suministro y mercados estratégicos.
Con este nuevo acuerdo, China y Estados Unidos buscan desescalar las tensiones mediante compromisos mutuos en comercio y exportaciones clave. No obstante, aún queda por determinar cómo se implementarán las medidas anunciadas y si ambas partes cumplirán los plazos y condiciones fijados. Por ahora, el entendimiento representa un paso más en la volátil relación bilateral entre las dos principales economías del mundo.
(Con información de EFE y AFP)
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