Thread by @weareoversight

LAWSUIT UPDATE: We’re suing 4 agencies for records regarding the Trump administration’s control over communications & public messaging about its Covid-19 response.

A new court filing shows the agencies intend to delay releasing the records. The FDA said it could take 2 years.

In early March, reports suggested White House and senior agency leadership were barring health experts from speaking freely on the coronavirus outbreak, so we FOIA’d records that could shed light on such attempts to control messaging.

After the Department of Health and Human Services and three component agencies did not produce records, we sued on April 23.

americanoversight.org/document/compl…

Now, despite offering to narrow our requests, the agencies have indicated that if we don't agree to their preferred timeline, they will seek to stay proceedings and further delay the release of the requested records.

The FDA previously stated that if we agreed to narrow our request from the HHS, they could process the documents in 8-12 weeks.

Concerned FDA's proposed approach was not well-targeted, we proposed an alternative that we expect will be simple to conduct and produce a small volume of records, and proposed this be completed within 15 weeks.

Now they claim that's "wildly unrealistic."

After over 117,000 deaths & worsening trends in parts of the US, we believe it is important to know if and how much the administration is controlling the release of Covid-19 information by key agencies.

This is especially important as the White House is pushing a narrative that the situation isn’t as bad as the facts show it to be.

vox.com/2020/6/17/2129…

Read the full joint status report here:
americanoversight.org/document/joint…