The Gateway Pundit has filed a FOIA request with the US State Department to find out what role Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland payed in the death of US journalist Gonzalo Lira Jan. 11. Disinformation expert Eoin Lenihan called for an investigation of Ukraine’s loony trans spokesperson going by the name of “Sarah Ashton-Cirillo” in connection with Lira’s death.
The Gateway Pundit filed the following Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the State Department today:
What communication was there since Feb. 24, 2022 between the US State Department and the US Embassy in Kiev regarding US citizen Gonzalo Lira?
Specifically, what communication was there since Feb. 24, 2022 between Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador in Kiev Bridget Brink regarding US citizen Gonzalo Lira?
What communication was there since Feb. 24, 2022 within the US Federal Government, and between the US Federal Government and the Ukrainian Government, specifically with the Ukrainian Security Service SBU, regarding US citizen Gonzalo Lira?
It usually takes approx. one month to receive a response to a FOIA request, according to the Office of Information Policy of thj Department of Justice.
According to ZeroHedge contributor Liam Cosgrove, Gonzalo Lira’s father Gonzalo Lira Sr. wrote:
My son, GONZALO LIRA, died in a hospital in Kharkiv between 11-12 pm Ukraine time yesterday January 11th, 2024.
I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son. The (person responsible for) this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden.
Please read his file enclosed from that kangaroo Court hearings and you will see that the charges were a political question and Biden gave the green light to that bloody dictator to put my son in prison. My pain is unbearable. The world must know what is going on in Ukraine with that inhuman dictator Zelensky.
IF YOU BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY AND DECENCY, MAKE THE WORLD KNOW WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO A DECENT AND VERY INTELLIGENT MAN WHO PREDICTED THAT UKRAINE WOULD NEVER WIN A WAR AGAINST RUSSIA AND THE FINANCIAL PUNISHMENTS WOULD BACKFIRE ON THE USA.
Gonzalo Lira Sr. posted a link to all the Ukrainian court documents charging Gonzalo Lira with “spreading Russian propaganda”.
In a private email to Gonzalo Lira’s father, the US State Department acnowledged that it was aware of Lira’s hospitalization by at least December.
This was after Lira Sr. informed the department that his son suffered from Pneumothorax — a condition of leaking and collapsing… pic.twitter.com/gyf9oQ9wTX
— Liam Cosgrove (@cosgrove_iv) January 12, 2024
US Senator J.D. Vance (R – Ohio) wrote on Twitter: “I’m sure the sociopaths will argue, in effect, that Lira deserved it. But count me as one of those who thinks our welfare clients shouldn’t execute our citizens.”
I’m sure the sociopaths will argue, in effect, that Lira deserved it. But count me as one of those who thinks our welfare clients shouldn’t execute our citizens.https://t.co/TYApwM3Wd6
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) January 12, 2024
Speaking to reporter Luke Rudkowski, US presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said it was “disgusting” that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had allowed a US journalist to die in prison. “The pro-war Republicans, the Lindsey Grahams and Nikki Haleys, where are they on this? … It should shock our conscience you don’t hear members of the establishmentg of either party give a damn.”
Vivek Ramaswamy is the ONLY presidential candidate to speak up on Gonzalo Lira. Say his name. pic.twitter.com/uS39sOzmsW
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 13, 2024
US citizen and “trans” spokesman for Ukraine Michael John Cirillo, who wears a wig and calls himself “Sarah Ashton-Cirillo”, had celebrated the arrest of Gonzalo May 5, and stated he met with Gonzalo Lira in prison in Kharkiv Sept. 12, 2023.
The day after this visit, Cirillo posted an unhinged video Sept. 13., seemingly celebrating the arrest of Gonzalo Lira and demanding he “pay for his crimes”.
“Next week, the teeth of the Russian devils will gnash ever harder, and their rabid mouths will foam in an uncontrollable frenzy as the world will see a favored Kremlin propagandist pay for their crimes. And this puppet of Putin is only the first. Russia’s war criminal propagandists will all be hunted down, and justice will be served as we in Ukraine are led on this mission by faith in God, liberty, and complete liberation”, Cirillo said.
Since there are several people asking for this video and many discussing it on Telegram and across social media channels, here is my latest episode of Russia Hates the Truth.
The russians and their supporters are gnashing their teeth as predicted.
— S. Ashton-Cirillo (@SarahAshtonLV) September 13, 2023
Cirillo was then briefly suspended from his role as Ukrainian Army spokesman after Senator J.D. Vance sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, asking if Cirillo was being paid with U.S. funds, if he was a U.S. citizen, and if there was reason to believe Ukraine was going to commit violence against people believed to be spreading “Russian propaganda”.
“I worry American resources could be supporting violence or the threat of violence against people for speaking their mind,” Vance wrote. “Notably, any critic of America’s incoherent policy in Ukraine has been slandered as a propagandist, including multiple presidential candidates and American journalists. While we can debate the merits of these accusations, engaging in protected speech should not invite threats of violence — otherwise, the First Amendment means nothing.”
Florida-born New Yorer Cirillo came to Ukraine as a reporter at the start of the war in March 2022, where he initially worked for the government propaganda hub Media Center Ukraine.
Media Center Ukraine grew out of the 2014 Ukraine Crisis Media Center, which was funded by the US government, the EU and Open Society Foundations and was ground zero for the Ukrainegate scandal, as Gateway Pundit reported in 2019.
Cirillo became a spokesman for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in August 2023 and was reinstated as official spokesman in October.
The Daily Mail reported that Ashton-Cirillo’s work “was praised by Larysa Kompantseva, head of the Department of Strategic Communications and Applied Linguistics at the National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine. Speaking at a NATO conference, Kompantseva called Ashton-Cirillo a ‘powerful information weapon’, during a panel on ‘Gender Analysis on the Ukraine Conflict’.”
Another email quoted by te Daily Mail stated that Ashton-Cirillo “was cleared by an internal investigation two days after making the comments to Senator Vance. It states: ‘We have managed to clear Sarah from all allegations and sort out all misunderstandings.”
Disinformation expert Eoin Lenihan called for Cirillo to be “investigated & prosecuted for ‘her’ role in the arrest & death of journalist Gonzalo Lira.”
It is essential that ‘Sarah’ Cirillo is investigated & prosecuted for ‘her’ role in the arrest & death of journalist Gonzalo Lira. In May 2023, Cirillo threatened “We are coming for…you.” Cirillo mocked Lira upon arrest & met with him in prison in September.
https://t.co/IK4KhTPBsI pic.twitter.com/MPBDqyGgEk— Dr. Eoin Lenihan (@EoinLenihan) January 12, 2024
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This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
