An expert who once oversaw a Department of Homeland Security disinformation board filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday against Fox News, her lawyer said.
Nina Jankowicz said in the lawsuit, filed in Delaware state court, that she was subjected to violent threats because of Fox News’ portrayal of her and her role, which included online insults.
“Fox’s coverage of Jankowicz was neither news nor political commentary; it was easy and cheap entertainment with no ties to the facts, designed to make consumers believe that Jankowicz could and would suppress speech about him,” his lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. «Fox deliberately chose to lie about Jankowicz.»
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Jankowicz, an author and disinformation expert, was named executive director of the DHS board, which was created in late April 2022. It was an internal task force within the agency with no authority, the lawsuit says.
The board’s work came to a halt just weeks later, on May 18, and Jankowicz resigned.
She said at the time that the purpose of the board was to ensure that DHS followed best practices to combat misinformation while protecting Americans’ free speech, privacy and civil liberties.
Comments on Fox News portrayed her censoring the speech of Americans, the lawsuit argues. They called her «unhinged» and a «minister of truth» in an apparent reference to George Orwell’s dystopian world in «1984,» the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit included screenshots of comments on Gab and another website, Patriots.win, in which people reacted to Fox broadcasts with comments like «it’s time to kill them all.» The tweets said that she should be executed.
Other direct messages told Jankowicz to commit suicide using vulgar language, according to the lawsuit.
His address was also posted online and his family members were threatened, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit alleges defamation and seeks compensatory as well as punitive damages; the amounts are not detailed.
The coverage created a «completely false reputation regarding government censorship,» the lawsuit alleges.
«In other words, based on verifiable falsehoods, Fox made Jankowicz radioactive and discouraged others from working with her as they otherwise would,» the lawyers argue in the lawsuit.
Fox agreed last month to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems over lies spread online about the 2020 election.
A defamation lawsuit that Smartmatic, an electronic equipment company, filed against Fox News is pending. Smartmatic’s lawsuit seeks $2.7 billion.
A Fox spokesman last month cited freedom of the press and said Fox was confident it would prevail in the Smartmatic case.