thegrayzone.com

Involved in

No claim in the record names this entity as a participant yet.

Statements attributed to it

• A federal hiring freeze began in January 2025, after which the Trump administration increased reliance on Special Government Employees.

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• Juan Sebastián Chamorro and his family have historically been the biggest recipients of U.S. funding for regime‑change efforts in Nicaragua and likely continue to be.

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• Elon Musk was designated a Special Government Employee while heading the Department of Government Efficiency.

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• In April 2026, Jennica Pounds announced she had become an officially credentialed Pentagon press corps member, a arrangement made possible by Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez.

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• During the 2018 coup, Juan Sebastián Chamorro promoted the use of roadblocks where opposition hooligans kidnapped, brutalized, raped and killed civilians.

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• Opinion polls in 2026 showed the Nicaraguan government’s approval ranging from 40 % to 60 % according to CB Global Data.

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• The Disinformation Governance Board was created in 2022 and shut down months later.

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• Datarepublican was identified in 2025 as Jennica Pounds, a Utah‑based mother.

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• CBP detained Blumenthal for approximately two and a half hours after he returned on July 10 from a reporting trip to Iran for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral.

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• CBP’s warrantless seizure and continued retention of Blumenthal’s phones violate the First and Fourth Amendments and the Privacy Protection Act.

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• The Global Engagement Center was an Obama‑era agency at the State Department meant to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation aimed at Americans.

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• A Deseret News article dated March 11, 2025 reported that Jennica Pounds hinted at future government work while awaiting a background check.

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• The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed a time-sensitive motion in the Eastern District of Virginia’s federal court on behalf of journalist Max Blumenthal, seeking the immediate return of two smartphones unlawfully seized and retained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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• Ortega has used the July 19 moment in recent years to discuss the country’s prior successes, lay out the agenda for the following year, praise the 1979 Sandinista triumph, and condemn the 2018 coup attempt.

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• Ortega’s call to bar coup participants from elections was met with cheers from the July 19 crowds.

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• When Blumenthal declined to provide the passcodes to his two phones because doing so could compromise his constitutional rights and confidential sources, an officer said the devices would be “hook[ed] up to machines” to extract their data.

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• The leaked documents related to the Global Engagement Center.

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• Tucker Carlson referred to Laura Loomer as “some kind of informal advisor to the Defense Department” in an October 2025 interview.

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• During Blumenthal’s detention, CBP officers asked questions that closely mirrored Loomer’s post.

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• The political focus is likely to stay on electoral interference, as the National Assembly president has reiterated that elections will indeed take place.

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• The filing argues that the timing, Blumenthal’s differential treatment compared with other journalists on the same reporting trip, and the overlap between Loomer’s demands and CBP’s questioning raise serious concerns that he was targeted because of his reporting and political viewpoints.

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• Marco Rubio is being pushed by Florida Republicans María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez to ensure that “After Cuba, Nicaragua is next.”

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• The Pentagon’s operation is in breach of the Hatch Act and the Smith‑Mundt Act.

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• The Noblogs platform was hacked on August 26, and the files were seized from the Italian anarchist collective Autistici Inventati.

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• The U.S. military confirmed that Jennica Pounds serves at the Department of War as a Special Government Employee three days after an AF Post post on August 21.

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• Every year huge crowds gather in celebrations across the country, culminating in a nationally‑broadcast speech by President Daniel Ortega.

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• CBP officers questioned Blumenthal about his journalism, who funded his travel, whether he had been paid for interviews, and whether he planned to return to Iran.

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• Felix Maradiaga is aligned with the far‑right Atlas Network and was a key actor in the 2018 coup attempt, receiving substantial U.S. funding.

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• On August 28, Jennica Pounds unveiled the DSA Explorer database tracking anti‑imperialist groups.

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• Laura Loomer said Americans may need another 9/11 to understand that Muslims should not be involved in U.S. politics.

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• Loomer celebrated the seizure and described Blumenthal as a national security threat after CBP seized his phones on July 14.

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• The U.S. Department of War employs conservative influencers as special government employees to conduct propaganda and surveillance.

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• Ortega’s government claims the sovereign right to fight foreign interference in its electoral process.

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• Western media outlets universally interpreted the pledge as a total ban on voting, prompting interventions from the U.S. State Department and South Florida.

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• Laura Loomer called for Max Blumenthal’s arrest, and five days later Customs and Border Patrol seized his electronic devices at Dulles International Airport.

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• Laura Loomer received press passes and was called on at a Pentagon briefing in December.

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• The Global Engagement Center was defunded in late 2024 and permanently closed in April 2025 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

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• CBP seized the phones but left Blumenthal’s laptop and camera untouched, despite claiming to be searching for evidence of criminal activity or child sexual material.

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• On August 29, Washington Post reporters revealed at least three more digital activists working for the Pentagon.

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• The NED currently spends over $2 million annually on Nicaraguan opposition groups, its highest funding level for any country in the region.

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• Jennica Pounds’s press credential expired in June 2026 and she began working for the Department of War in July 2026.

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• The motion seeks the immediate return of both devices and all information or copies obtained from them under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g), along with an expedited hearing because the seizure is interfering with Blumenthal’s work, chilling his reporting, and threatening the confidentiality of his sources and unpublished reporting.

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• Pete Hegseth forced longtime Pentagon correspondents to sign loyalty oaths in October 2025, prompting a mass walkout by military reporters.

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• July 19 marks the anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista Revolution victory and the overthrow of the US‑backed Somoza dictatorship.

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• Nicaragua has been placed under a new round of U.S. tariffs, and economic sanctions and attacks on its trade with the United States will continue.

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• Jennica Pounds was employed by the U.S. Department of War as a special government employee in mid‑August.

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• Laura Loomer wrote a lengthy post on X, raising questions about who paid for Blumenthal’s trip and urging the administration to arrest him.

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Voices are counted, never weighed. This is a record of what this entity has been recorded as saying — not a measure of whether it is right.

Published documents

• ADC sues DHS Secretary Mullin over illegal CBP seizure of Max Blumenthal’s devices
• Nicaragua banned US-sponsored coup leaders from elections, sparking corporate media meltdown - The Grayzone
• Under Israeli pressure, US seizes Max Blumenthal’s devices on return from Tehran reporting trip
• Covert Pentagon propagandists are tracking anti-war Americans, skirting the law - The Grayzone

Track record

4 documents · 71 claims produced · 0 contradicted

Counts, not a rating. The model does not compute a reliability score — that would invent precision the evidence does not support. None of its claims were restatements; each was an independent assertion.

Origin: produced by ingest:api