A U.S.-based pro-China media outlet subpoenaed in a Congressional probe of communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham's funding network mounted its public defense on Democracy Now!, a progressive news outlet that once paid millions of dollars to a software company Singham founded.
BreakThrough News, one of three organizations subpoenaed by the powerful House Ways and Means Committee last month, used Democracy Now! to portray the investigation as an attack on journalism rather than what the committee said is a probe into its funding and alleged foreign influence.
During an interview with Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, BreakThrough News presenter Rania Khalek slammed the subpoenas as a McCarthy-style attack on free speech and independent journalism. She also warned investigators could eventually target Democracy Now! itself and encouraged viewers to financially support BreakThrough News as it fights the subpoenas.
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"They're attempting to criminalize dissent and an independent press because they're losing the argument," Khalek told Goodman.
Khalek described the subpoenas as a "flagrant attack" on the First Amendment and argued lawmakers were reviving McCarthy-era tactics because they were losing the public debate. She said the committee had cited the outlet's coverage of Israel and ICE's immigration enforcement.
According to a previous Fox News Digital investigation cited by the House Ways and Means Committee, BreakThrough BT Media Inc., the parent organization of BreakThrough News, received about $1.1 million from Neville Roy Singham.
Separately, IRS filings show Democracy Now! paid about $2.5 million between 2019 and 2024 to ThoughtWorks, the software company founded by Singham, for software development services. Democracy Now! is not a target of the House Ways and Means Committee investigation and the committee has not suggested those payments are part of its inquiry. Singham sold the company in 2017.
BreakThrough News and two other organizations are being scrutinized over funding tied to the Singham network and for failing to produce documents requested by the committee earlier this year. The committee said it is examining whether nonprofit laws adequately protect against foreign influence and whether Congress should strengthen those laws.
The committee alleges the Singham network routed money through shell companies and donor-advised funds in ways that obscured the original source of the funding.
The committee is specifically investigating about $39 million it says flowed to BreakThrough News, as well as People's Forum Inc., a New York-based activist organization, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, which describes its work as rooted in "national liberation Marxism." BreakThrough News operates from People's Forum's West 37th Street address in Manhattan.
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Singham, a 72-year-old American who sold ThoughtWorks for an estimated $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai, has directed at least $278 million into six core nonprofits within a broader international network of media organizations, activist groups and think tanks, according to a previous Fox News Digital investigation.
Organizations within the broader network have regularly organized or participated in anti-ICE, anti-Israel and pro-Iran demonstrations, Fox News Digital previously reported.
During the Democracy Now! interview, Khalek argued the committee was investigating BreakThrough News because of its political views. Khalek also disputed the committee's characterization of the investigation.
"They are explicitly saying it's because of our viewpoints," she said.
However, in a cover letter accompanying the subpoenas to BreakThrough News, the House Ways and Means Committee rejected such arguments made by attorneys for the organization that the investigation infringed First Amendment protections. The committee said its inquiry concerns BreakThrough News' "financing arrangements and organizational structure" — "not its speech, editorial positions, or political viewpoints."
The cover letter stated that the committee is seeking internal communications, financial records and documents relating to the committee's investigation into organizations connected to the Singham network.
Khalek later expanded on her McCarthyism comparison, arguing Republicans were attempting to shape public opinion because they were "losing the argument." She said the original McCarthy era succeeded because it won public support.
"This smear that we're part of a 'foreign plot' is all they have left because they can't win on their merits," Khalek said. "That's what people need to understand this as."
Khalek did not address the committee's questions regarding BreakThrough News' finances or organizational structure during the interview.
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Her remarks echoed messaging that quickly spread among left-wing activists and organizations defending BreakThrough News after the subpoenas became public. Supporters portrayed the probe as an effort to suppress dissent rather than scrutinize the network's funding and alleged foreign influence.
As Fox News Digital previously reported, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, socialist politician Kshama Sawant and others — rapidly characterized the investigation as "McCarthyism," a "witch hunt," an attack on independent journalism and a "war on the left."
Many argued the probe was aimed at suppressing dissent rather than scrutinizing the network's funding and alleged foreign influence.
Benjamin also appeared on the same Democracy Now! program, where she discussed a separate Treasury Department investigation into CodePink following the group's Cuba convoy earlier this year.
Benjamin co-founded CodePink with Jodie Evans, who married Singham in 2017, the same year he sold ThoughtWorks.
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton of the Southern District of New York has separately opened a grand jury investigation into alleged wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes involving Singham's funding network. The investigation is ongoing, and no charges have been announced.
In March 2026, Piker, Benjamin and Evans traveled to Cuba to express support for the country's communist government.
Later in the interview, Khalek broadened her warning beyond BreakThrough News.
"It starts with BreakThrough News. But if we let them win, next they come after Democracy Now!, and it only gets bigger from there," Khalek said.
BreakThrough News and Democracy Now! did not respond to a request for comment.
