Rep. Jason Smith targets press as chair of Ways and Means Committee

Incident details

Date of incident: July 21, 2026
Location: Washington, District of Columbia
Targets: BreakThrough News

Chilling Statement

July 21, 2026

Jason Smith, a U.S. representative for Missouri, has used his position as chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means to further President Donald Trump’s efforts to punish and intimidate news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting Smith’s efforts in this regularly updated report.

Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more.

This article was first published on July 29, 2026.

July 21, 2026 | Ways and Means Committee demands financial records from nonprofit newsroom

The House Committee on Ways and Means, led by Rep. Jason Smith, issued a subpoena seeking documents from nonprofit outlet BreakThrough News on July 21, 2026, along with two other nonprofits.

In letters reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Smith wrote that the committee was examining the tax-exempt status of the organizations as part of an investigation into whether existing tax laws “adequately account for foreign influence and control.”

All three organizations have reportedly received funding from Neville Roy Singham, a U.S. citizen and tech financier based in Shanghai, purportedly as part of efforts to advance Chinese Communist Party interests.

The House committee first requested BreakThrough’s financial records concerning donations or contracts involving foreign nationals or foreign entities, as well as any communications with Singham, on Feb. 9.

“The Committee is disturbed by the connections between BreakThrough News and Chinese Communist Party linked organizations,” Smith wrote. “Therefore, given the Committee’s concerns, and in furtherance of the Committee’s oversight, I seek to understand why, and if, BreakThrough News deserves their tax-exempt status.”

BreakThrough refused in a response letter dated Feb. 23. The committee responded to the challenges May 4, asserting that not only does it have jurisdiction to request the documents but that doing so does not violate the news outlet’s First Amendment rights to freedom of the press, nor of free speech or association.

After BreakThrough again refused, Smith wrote in a July 21 letter that the committee would be “issuing compulsory process,” in this case a subpoena compelling production of documents and materials.

In an article published the following day, BreakThrough wrote that it was “under attack.”

“For years, Republican lawmakers have painted a target on our backs, falsely claiming that our political views and reporting are part of some foreign plot,” it wrote. “Make no mistake, this is a flagrant abuse of power, and a direct attack on our work as journalists and on the First Amendment generally.”

BreakThrough Editor-in-Chief Ben Beckler said in an email to Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project, that the First Amendment was written precisely to protect journalism that the government does not approve of.

“That’s why so many of the country’s decisive free speech cases involved the abolitionist press, the radical labor press and the antiwar press,” Beckler wrote in an email to FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern. “But history looks back on these episodes for what they were — shameful violations of free speech — and that’s the same thing that’s happening here.”

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The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].