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02/3/2017

CoA Institute Investigates EPA Employees Using Electronic Messaging Apps to Thwart Transparency

Washington D.C. – Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request after recent media reports identified a number of career EPA employees possibly using an encrypted electronic messaging app called “Signal” to communicate about work-related issues, including how to prevent political appointees from “undermin[ing] their agency’s mission to protect public health and the environment” or “delet[ing] valuable scientific data.”

“It appears that some employees at the EPA may be using encrypted apps on their phones to avoid transparency laws in an effort to conceal their communications from internal and external oversight,” said CoA Assistant Vice President Henry Kerner. “Under the Federal Records Act, the EPA has a legal obligation to preserve all records made by employees working on official government business.  This obligation is all the more important if EPA employees are using personal cellular devices or private accounts for such purposes.  These messages must also be made available under the Freedom of Information Act.  Agency leadership, Congress, and the public have a right to know if federal employees are using encrypted electronic messages to evade transparency.”

It is unknown whether these employees discuss work related issues on Signal using their EPA-issued or personal devices. Under the Federal Records Act, the EPA has a legal obligation to preserve records evidencing employees working on government business, no matter the medium of their communication. CoA Institute is submitting this Freedom of Information Act request and notifying Acting Administrator McCabe of her obligation under the Federal Records Act to ensure that all work-related Signal messages are retained or retrieved by the EPA.

The full FOIA can be found here.

 

 

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12/28/2016

D.C. Circuit Overturns Lower Court, Rules Clinton Email Case Can Proceed

Washington D.C. – The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling by the District Court in a lawsuit Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) filed against Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Archivist David Ferriero seeking to enforce their duties under the Federal Records Act as they relate to retrieval of Hillary Clinton’s emails.  CoA Institute Vice President John Vecchione argued the case, which was consolidated with a similar case filed by Judicial Watch. (Audio of oral arguments can be found in its entirety here)

The lower court had dismissed the case as moot because that court believed the State Department had recovered enough of the records and taken enough action short of initiating action through the Attorney General. The D.C. Circuit Court held that because the statute requires the agencies to reach out to the Attorney General to seek record recovery, and because the State Department has not done so, CoA Institute and Judicial Watch have not received everything to which they are entitled.

CoA Institute Vice President John Vecchione: “The D.C. Circuit has reinforced the lesson that the government is bound to follow the law and that measures short of what the law requires to recover government documents cannot be substituted as ‘good enough’.”

Read the opinion here.

 

 

 

 

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12/28/2016

DC Circuit Holds Cause of Action Institute Federal Records Act Case on Clinton Emails Not Moot

Today, the DC Circuit held the Judicial Watch and CoA Institute cases against the Secretary of State and Archivist seeking to enforce their Federal Records Act duties as they relate to Hillary Clinton’s emails are not moot. 

The court held that because the statute requires the agencies to reach out to the Attorney General to seek record recovery, and because they have not done so, CoA Institute and Judicial Watch have not received everything to which they are entitled and, therefore, the cases are not moot.

CoA Institute Vice President John Vecchione -who argued the case before the circuit: “The DC circuit has reinforced the lesson that the government is bound to follow the law and that measures short of what the law requires to recover government documents can not be substituted as ‘good enough’.”

Read the opinion here.

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11/4/2016

Circuit Court Hears Oral Argument in Cause of Action Institute Federal Records Act Case on Clinton Emails

Today, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in Cause of Action Institute’s lawsuit against Secretary of State John Kerry and Archivist of the United States David Ferriero.  The case originally sought to enforce the officials’ Federal Records Act duties to initiate action through the Attorney General and notify Congress because they were unable to retrieve all of the federal records former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton unlawfully removed from the State Department by setting up a personal email server to conduct official government business.  The district court below dismissed the case as moot because that court believed the State Department had recovered enough of the records and taken enough action short of initiating action through the Attorney General.  The oral argument heard today was on the appeal of that decision.

CoA Institute Vice President John Vecchione argued the case, which was consolidated with a similar case filed by Judicial Watch.  The three-judge panel was engaged on the issues and asked probing questions of both sides.

The oral argument can be heard in its entirety here.

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05/25/2016

IG Report on Clinton Email Consistent with CoA Complaint

Washington, DC – Cause of Action (CoA) Institute President and CEO and former Federal Judge Alfred J. Lechner, Jr. today released the following statement following the release of a State Department Office of Inspector General (IG) report that found Hillary Clinton failed to comply with the Federal Records Act during her tenure as Secretary of State. The report found that Mrs. Clinton has not provided all of her emails to the State Department, which contradicts previous statements before the courts.

CoA Institute President & CEO Alfred J. Lechner, Jr.: “News reports today that the Department of State Office of Inspector General has determined that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not use the ‘appropriate method’ for preserving her emails support Cause of Action Institute’s work to hold the State Department accountable for its violations of the Federal Records Act. The Inspector General found that the emails Mrs. Clinton belatedly returned to the State Department are an ‘incomplete’ set. Cause of Action Institute will continue to seek to compel Secretary Kerry and the National Archives and Records Management Administration to perform their statutory duties to recover all of Mrs. Clinton’s email records.”

The report states:

“Secretary Clinton should have preserved any Federal records she created and received on her personal account by printing and filing those records with the related files in the Office of the Secretary. At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act.”

On July 8, 2015, Cause of Action Institute filed a complaint in federal court in Washington, DC to compel Secretary of State John Kerry and Archivist of the United States David Ferriero to initiate action through the Attorney General to recover all of the records Mrs. Clinton unlawfully alienated from the State Department.  The defendants in that suit argued the case was moot because the State Department received 55,000 pages of emails from Mrs. Clinton.  The district court agreed with defendants and dismissed the suit.  The case is currently on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Today’s revelations support the position of Cause of Action Institute, as the State Department Office of Inspector General has concluded that not only did Mrs. Clinton fail to comply with the law, but that the State Department has not recovered all of the records.

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