Washington, D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) failed to disclose records about its employees’ use of an encrypted messaging application, “Signal,” to discuss the Trump administration’s expected changes to the agency’s policy agenda.
The lawsuit follows a February 2, 2017 Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request, which sought all records of Signal communications created or received by EPA officials, as well as records concerning the EPA’s efforts, if any, to retriever, recover, or retain such work-related correspondence in accordance with federal records management laws.
Cause of Action Institute Assistant Vice President Henry Kerner: “Career employees at the EPA appear to be using Signal to avoid transparency laws and vital oversight by the Executive Branch, Congress, and the public. Communications on this encrypted application, however, which relate to agency business must still be preserved under the Federal Records Act and be made available for disclosure under the FOIA. Taxpayers have a right to know if the EPA’s leadership is meeting its record preservation obligations.”
According to media reports, at least a dozen EPA career employees have been using Signal to communicate about work-related issues, including how to prevent President Trump’s political appointees from “undermin[ing] their agency’s mission to protect public health and the environment” or “delet[ing] valuable scientific data.” CoA Institute’s investigation into this matter has been widely discussed in the press, along with Congress’s request for the EPA’s watchdog to independently investigate the matter. To date, the EPA has failed to issue a timely determination on CoA Institute’s FOIA request, let alone produce any responsive records.
The full complaint can be found here.
For information regarding this press release, please contact Zachary Kurz, Director of Communications: zachary.kurz@causeofaction.org
