The Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed BreakThrough News last week, demanding the independent online news outlet hand over internal communications and financial records. BreakThrough News says it’s being targeted over its coverage of U.S. mass deportations, ICE abuses, Cuba and Palestine solidarity and U.S. foreign policy.
“They’re attempting to criminalize dissent and an independent press,” says BreakThrough News journalist Rania Khalek, comparing it to the McCarthy-era campaign against left-wing groups. “Everybody who cares about a free press and cares about free speech should be alarmed about an attack like this.”