Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) for work-related emails on Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s nongovernment email accounts.
In June 2023, Judicial Watch received FOIA records that showed top officials from DOJ’s National Security Division discussing the political implications of former President Trump allowing CNN to use closed-circuit TV footage of the FBI’s armed raid on his Mar-a-Lago home. The records include an email exchange where Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Marshall Miller appears to forward information to Monaco’s personal account.
There is a long history of government officials, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, improperly using private accounts and servers for their public business. Although this practice violates various policies and laws, may expose sensitive information to hacking by adversaries, has been used to avoid Freedom of Information Act requests; and although officials receive training in the policies and agree to follow them, there is no extensive evidence of top officials being held accountable for violations.
The new lawsuit comes on the heels of the Justice Department ignoring a Judicial Watch follow-up on its June 22, 2023, FOIA request for “all work-related emails sent to and from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco using non-.gov email accounts from January 20, 2021, to [June 2023].”
Judicial Watch caught a top Biden Justice Department official, Lisa Monaco, using her personal email accounts for sensitive government business – including the unprecedented targeting of President Trump. And, in further echoes of the Hillary Clinton email scandal, the Justice Department is trying to cover it up.
Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch President
Read more about the case here.
The following information is from Judicial Watch:
In addition to having uncovered the Clinton email scandal, Judicial Watch has been in the forefront of the court battles for transparency regarding Biden administration’s targeting of former President Trump. Read about those cases below:
- In August 2023, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for records of the Archives’ role in President Trump’s White House records controversy; whether it offered Trump a secure storage location other than the National Archives; and if the Archives consulted with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding the classification or declassification procedures of any of the alleged classified documents found at Trump’s Florida residence.
- In June 2023, Judicial Watch obtained DOJ records that showed top officials of the National Security Division discussing the political implications of Trump allowing CNN to use closed-circuit TV (CCTV) footage of the raid on his Mar-a-Lago home. The documents confirmed that the Justice Department had asked that Mar-a-Lago CCTV be turned off before the raid.
- A separate Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration resulted in the release of records about the unprecedented document dispute between Archives and President Trump. Click here or here to review the records.
- In August 2022, Judicial Watch successfully sued to unseal the search warrant affidavit used to justify the unprecedented raid on the home of former President Trump.
- In September 2022, Judicial Watch filed lawsuits against the DOJ for its records and the FBI’s records about the Mar-a-Lago raid search warrant application and approval, as well as communications about the warrant between the FBI, Executive Office of the President and the Secret Service.
- In October 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for all communications of the U.S. Secret Service internally and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the raid on Trump’s home and for any video or audio recordings made during the raid.
- In November 2022, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for all communications between the Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding the search warrant that precipitated the raid on former Trump’s Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago.
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They knew they had a get out of jail free card when Hilary Clinton wasn’t prosecuted.
It’s been clear since the Clinton email fiasco that what’s needed is a website whereat ALL nonprivileged government records are posted, so as to put an end to the SENSLESS need to file lawsuits to obtain nonprivileged information.
Nonprivileged information should be readily available to the citizenry without the need to file FOIA “requests” muchless lawsuits. Whatever the cost of maintaining such a records website might be, it’s clear that the expense would be offset by eliminating the need to file legal actions and joust about in court over and over and over again just to obtain INCOMPLETE records regarding evne uncontroversial matters.