{"id":49353,"date":"2026-07-24T13:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49353"},"modified":"2026-07-24T13:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:01:14","slug":"press-freedom-groups-warn-no-newsroom-in-america-is-safe-after-house-gop-subpoenas-left-wing-outlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/24\/press-freedom-groups-warn-no-newsroom-in-america-is-safe-after-house-gop-subpoenas-left-wing-outlet\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Freedom Groups Warn \u2018No Newsroom in America Is Safe\u2019 After House GOP Subpoenas Left-Wing Outlet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Ways<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) conducts a hearing on June 4, 2026, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.\u00a0(Photo by Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBreakThrough News is not the first, nor will it be the last, to come under official attack,\u201d said one press freedom advocate.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jul 23, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press freedom<\/a> groups are issuing dire warnings on Thursday that House Republicans<\/a>\u2019 efforts to subpoena the nonprofit left-wing news organization BreakThrough News represent a dangerous new step in a McCarthyite war on political dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Fox News reported<\/a> that BreakThrough, a New York-based outlet, was one of three nonprofits that had been issued subpoenas by the GOP-controlled House Ways and Means Committee as part of an investigation into $39 million worth of donations from tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, a self-described socialist who has used his wealth to fund left-wing nonprofits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In letters sent Tuesday, the committee, led by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), said that BreakThrough, as well as two other organizations\u2014the People\u2019s Forum Inc., a New York-based activist hub, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research\u2014had not turned over any documents that had been requested as part of an investigation into whether rules around tax exempt status for nonprofits should be tightened to protect against foreign influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee has accused Singham, an American who now lives in Shanghai, of exploiting the tax code and using shell<\/a> companies and donor-advised funds to hide foreign money that has been used to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. It does not, however, make any specific accusation of legal wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subpoena requires BreakThrough News to turn over records about its finances, foreign donors and grant recipients, fiscal-sponsorship arrangements, and communications with Singham and any foreign entities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/BTnewsroom\/status\/2080271420794228886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2080271420794228886%7Ctwgr%5Ea689ec1401c3f4fafd473a1969bc5617649aed57%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fhouse-gop-subpoena-left-wing-news<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement on Wednesday, BreakThrough News said it was \u201cunder attack.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor years, Republican lawmakers have painted a target on our backs, falsely claiming that our political views and reporting are part of some foreign plot,\u201d the outlet said. \u201cNow, the MAGA-dominated House Ways and Means Committee has issued us a subpoena\u2014demanding internal communications, financial records and more. Make no mistake, this is a flagrant abuse of power, and a direct attack on our work as journalists and on the First Amendment<\/a> generally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BreakThrough said it does not receive any funding from foreign governments or institutions and that it already complies with all the tax and public reporting requirements that nonprofits have to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are not charged with any crime, because our only \u2018crime\u2019 has been to tell the truth\u2013by covering the activities of the Palestine<\/a> solidarity<\/a> movement, unmasking the truth of ICE\u2019s terror in our streets, and exposing Washington\u2019s crimes around the world, from Cuba<\/a> to the Congo,\u201d the outlet said. \u201cThat\u2019s the journalism<\/a> they want to shut down. Their goal is to saddle us with legal proceedings and hostile media to drain our resources and stop this important work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the committee stated that they are investigating BreakThrough over its financing rather than its politics, letters<\/a> sent to the organization have treated the content of its reporting as circumstantial evidence of malign foreign influence, referring to it as \u201canti-American\u201d and claiming that its negative coverage of Israel was \u201csowing division within the United States<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chip Gibbons, the policy director of the free speech<\/a> advocacy group Defending Rights & Dissent, told Common Dreams that the subpoena of BreakThrough was a \u201cdeeply chilling assault on the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuch tactics are, quite literally, a throwback to the House Un-American Activities Committee, which today is mostly viewed as a disgrace,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cI say mostly, because just three days ago [Secretary Marco] Rubio\u2019s State Department released a report<\/a> preposterously attacking the US left, including some of these groups, as Cuban fronts that cited old HUAC reports.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further emphasized in a press release<\/a> that there was \u201cno plausible need\u201d for a news organization to provide documents as part of a broad congressional inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only thing these groups are accused of is essentially receiving donations from a US citizen who has been the subject of an intensive campaign of demonization,\u201d Gibbons said. \u201cIt is lawful for Americans to donate to activist causes and media projects while holding views disfavored by Congress. This is clearly not a valid legislative inquiry at all, but an attempt to intimidate and chill dissenting opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, agreed that \u201cCongress shouldn\u2019t be using a tax investigation as a pretext to dig through a newsroom\u2019s internal communications or financial records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFreedom of the press,\u201d he said, \u201capplies to all journalists, regardless of whether politicians like their editorial slant or their politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/FreedomofPress\/status\/2080319856608530432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2080319856608530432%7Ctwgr%5Ea689ec1401c3f4fafd473a1969bc5617649aed57%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fhouse-gop-subpoena-left-wing-news<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In what it has portrayed as a fight against \u201cleft-wing terrorism,\u201d the Trump administration<\/a> has increasingly blurred the lines between violent activity and protected political speech that they claim \u201cincites\u201d violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, signed<\/a> by Trump in September, designates large swathes of left-wing viewpoints on race, gender, immigration<\/a>, and other topics as \u201cindicators\u201d of domestic terrorism that have been used to link entire groups<\/a> of people to violent acts they themselves did not commit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio said<\/a> last week that the administration would soon be designating more left-wing organizations as terrorist groups, while senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller<\/a> said that the full force of the state would be used to \u201cdisrupt, identify, defund, de-bank, arrest, prosecute\u201d those deemed to \u201cfoment\u201d political violence, not just those who actually commit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has previously pledged<\/a> to use the law to \u201cdismantle\u201d organizations that use heated rhetoric to refer to their right-wing<\/a> opponents, including calling them \u201cfascist\u201d or \u201cauthoritarian.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at Free Press, described the subpoena of BreakThrough as an extension of a \u201cretaliatory ethos\u201d Trump has taken towards critical journalists \u201cwith the goal of shutting down criticism and dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told Common Dreams, \u201cBreakThrough News is not the first, nor will it be the last, to come under official attack for bringing people alternative and useful news coverage about ICE abuses, foreign policy, Palestinian rights<\/a>, and other topics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAllowing a congressional committee to harass an independent newsroom with a broad subpoena sets an awful precedent,\u201d Stern said. \u201cIf lawmakers can abuse tax oversight to single out outlets whose reporting offends them today, no newsroom in America is safe from government intimidation tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) conducts a hearing on June 4, 2026, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.\u00a0(Photo by Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images) \u201cBreakThrough News is not the first, nor will it be the last, to come under official attack,\u201d said… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2184],"tags":[2263],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49353"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49354,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49353\/revisions\/49354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}