FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
New York, Oct. 19, 2026 — A coalition of press freedom organizations is demanding that the House Ways and Means Committee drop its threat to serially subpoena staffers at BreakThrough News. The committee wants BreakThrough News employees to testify before Congress unless the outlet drops its First Amendment and other objections to the committee’s prior subpoenas and document demands by tomorrow.
The committee has claimed its prior correspondence was in furtherance of a tax-related probe into one of BreakThrough’s donors. But the committee and its chairman, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., have accused the outlet of “anti-American rhetoric” and “messaging that mirrors hostile government propaganda.” It is citing BreakThrough’s criticisms of immigration enforcement actions and of U.S. and Israeli foreign policy as examples of such rhetoric, making clear that the probe is pure viewpoint discrimination.
The following can be attributed to Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern:
“Rep. Smith’s shameless targeting of BreakThrough News for editorial viewpoints that he dislikes shows a complete disregard of the First Amendment. Congress has many more important things to do than interrogate an entire nonprofit newsroom because lawmakers speculate that disagreement with their opinions must evidence a conspiracy. The committee has not identified any alleged unlawful conduct by BreakThrough or any legitimate legislative purpose for its investigation. People who themselves hold controversial political views should understand the risk of normalizing fishing expeditions targeting dissent.”
Read the letter here, and please contact us if you would like further comment.
