New Lawsuit: Last fall, @Google told me @TheJusticeDept forced it to secretly turn over my comms records in 2017. Since then, @empowr_us filed 5 demands for related docs under FOIA. DOJ ignored all 5. So today, we sued.
Full PDF+Exhibits:
🧵⬇️empr.me/gag-FOIA-suit
Full PDF+Exhibits:
🧵⬇️empr.me/gag-FOIA-suit
In 2017, I led the Sen. Judiciary Cmte oversight and investigations unit through the height of the #Russiagate hysteria for then-Chairman @ChuckGrassley.
After @Google notified me in October 2023, I confirmed that DOJ/@FBI had also targeted a dozen or so other Capitol Hill attorneys’ personal accounts—from both political parties.
I also learned that DOJ obtained from the court—with no notice to Congress—annual gag orders to stop giants like @Google, @Apple, and @Verizon from telling anyone for 6 years that they had turned over the records.
Remember, these are records of Legislative Branch attorneys’ communications being turned over to the Executive Branch. In secret. With no notice. Did the court realize what it was approving?
DOJ did not flag for @Google that these were the accounts of attorneys doing constitutional oversight of DOJ. It’s just a list of email and Google voice accounts. Did DOJ hide the ball from the court too? We previously sued to unseal the filings to find out.
https://x.com/JsnFostr/status/1813887458356183422
Our 5 FOIA demands at issue in today’s lawsuit seek those court filings too, but also other internal DOJ records about its targeting of congressional atty comms. We targeted our FOIAs to key personnel during key time frames around the subpoenas, the gag orders, and the annual renewals of the gag orders. e.g....
In the 10 months since our first FOIA, DOJ has entirely ignored its legal obligation to comply. Other than acknowledging receipt, we have heard nothing but crickets. Not one request to clarify or further narrow our request. Not even a single page of documents produced.
Here are some of the more recent demands for documents pursuant to FOIA included in this lawsuit:
And here, our most recent demand for documents targets records from earlier this year—around the time we filed our motion to intervene and unseal the underlying court filings that supposedly justified the gag orders.
There is a public interest in shining the light of day on the lengths to which the gov't went for years to keep secret its targeting of oversight attorneys on Capitol Hill.
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