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Weekly Update: JW Sues To Expose Anti-Trump Deep State
Judicial Watch ^ | April 14, 2017 | Tom Fitton

Posted on 04/15/2017 10:28:48 AM PDT by jazusamo

Deep State Watch – JW Sues EPA for Records from Encrypted App
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Gorsuch Confirmation a Victory for Constitutional Government

Deep State Watch – JW Sues EPA for Records from Encrypted App

The administrative deep state – the legions of unelected, entrenched bureaucrats in Washington – thinks it doesn’t have to answer to an elected president, the rule of law, or the American people. We are now seeking to uncover the truth about the particularly notorious fifth column in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

We just filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for communications sent or received by EPA officials who may have used the cell phone encryption application “Signal” to thwart government oversight and transparency. We filed the suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ( Judicial Watch v. Environmental Protection Agency (No. 1:17-cv-00533)).

  1. The lawsuit was filed after the EPA failed to respond to our February request for:Any and all work-related communications sent to or from the following EPA officials using the app known as “Signal,” for the period February 3, 2016, to the present:

2. Any and all records requesting or approving the use of the messaging app known as “Signal” by any EPA personnel for official business. The time frame for the requested records is July 1, 2014, to the present.

You can see that there’s no getting around that we want – government records from the secrecy app.

The use of Signal by EPA officials to prevent government oversight was reported in a February 2, 2017, Politico article entitled “Federal workers turn to encryption to thwart Trump.”

According to the article:

Whether inside the Environmental Protection Agency, within the Foreign Service, on the edges of the Labor Department or beyond, employees are using new technology … to organize letters, talk strategy, or contact media outlets and other groups to express their dissent.

***

Fearing for their jobs, the employees began communicating incognito using the app Signal shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

***

[T]he goal is to “create a network across the agency” of people who will raise red flags if Trump’s appointees do anything unlawful.

This lawsuit could expose how the anti-Trump “deep state” embedded in EPA is working to undermine the rule of law. Let’s hope the Trump administration enforces FOIA and turns over these records. Given EPA’s checkered history on records retention and transparency, it is disturbing to see reports that career civil servants and appointed officials may now be attempting to use high-tech blocking devices to circumvent the Federal Records Act and the Freedom of Information Act altogether.

Signal has long been touted within the high-tech community as an encryption device particularly effective for blocking government access to smartphone messaging. In a 2015 article titled “Signal Keeps Your I-Phone Calls and Texts Safe from Government Oversight,” TechCrunch.com advised : “Don’t want someone else handing your text messages, pictures, videos or phone conversations over to the government? There’s an app for that. An iOS app called Signal is a project out of Open Whisper Systems, a not-for-profit collective of hackers dedicated to making it harder for prying government eyes to get ahold of your information.”

The use of private encryption software such as Signal by federal officials and employees not only may make it difficult for their work to be overseen; it also may make it impossible for federal agencies to fulfill their record-keeping and transparency obligations under the Federal Records and Freedom of Information Acts. The Federal Records Act requires federal employees to preserve all records of work-related communications on government servers, even if such communications occur over non-government emails, phones or text messages. The records must be forwarded on to the agency for preservation and archiving, and the records are subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act, unless specifically exempted.

The Environmental Protection Agency has a history of employees’ failing to preserve records and using private emails to conduct agency business or conducting official business through non-official communication channels:

The tech publication Wired covered the new challenges to transparency well:

Judicial Watch, for its part, acknowledges that it may be tough to dig up deleted Signal communications. But another element of its FOIA request asks for any EPA information about whether it has approved Signal for use by agency staffers. “They can’t use these apps to thwart the Federal Records Act just because they don’t like Donald Trump,” says Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “This serves also as an educational moment for any government employees, that using the app to conduct government business to ensure the deletion of records is against the law, and against record-keeping policies in almost every agency.”

Fitton hopes the lawsuit will at least compel the EPA to prevent employees from installing Signal or similar apps on government-issued phones. “The agency is obligated to ensure their employees are following the rules so that records subject to FOIA are preserved,” he says. “If they’re not doing that, they could be answerable to the courts.”

The issue is now before the courts, so stay tuned.

We Warn 11 States to Clean Voter Registration Lists or Face a Lawsuit

Continued


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ar15ammo; atf; banglist; communications; cultureofcorruption; deepstate; draintheswamp; epa; federalrecordsact; first100days; foia; gorsuch; judicialwatch; jw; lawsuits; scotus; tomfitton; trumpepa; voterfraud; voterregistration; weeklyupdate

1 posted on 04/15/2017 10:28:48 AM PDT by jazusamo
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To: GOPJ; Diana in Wisconsin; ColdOne; Art in Idaho; Conservative Gato; ptsal; onyx

Off the Wall Ping!
Contact to be added.


2 posted on 04/15/2017 10:32:16 AM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: GregNH

Oh modern technology !


3 posted on 04/15/2017 10:53:41 AM PDT by hoosiermama (When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.DJT)
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To: jazusamo

I love Judicial Watch.


4 posted on 04/15/2017 11:05:04 AM PDT by HokieMom (Pacepa : Can the U.S. afford a president who can't recognize anti-Americanism?)
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To: jazusamo

Sorry to repeat myself, but bring ALL (except military) federal employees into an exit/hiring interview. Ask each one whether they voted for 0bama twice. If they voted for 0bama twice, fire them.

Shows they lack good judgment.

5.56mm


5 posted on 04/15/2017 11:10:29 AM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: HokieMom

Yes, they don’t give up and get results.


6 posted on 04/15/2017 11:11:46 AM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: M Kehoe

Excellent idea, I absolutely agree.


7 posted on 04/15/2017 11:13:42 AM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: M Kehoe

Sorry to repeat myself, but bring ALL (except military) federal employees into an exit/hiring interview. Ask each one whether they voted for 0bama twice. If they voted for 0bama twice, fire them.

Shows they lack good judgment.>>>. i would fire every employee. then they can submit resumes for jobs that are open at about 25% of fired workforce.


8 posted on 04/15/2017 11:55:58 AM PDT by kvanbrunt2 (снова сделаем Ам)
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MAGA!

Please bump the Freepathon or click above to donate or become a monthly donor!

9 posted on 04/15/2017 11:58:34 AM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: jazusamo

Hopefully the EPA is one of those federal departments that becomes extinct under the Trump Administration.

CGato


10 posted on 04/15/2017 1:10:36 PM PDT by Conservative Gato (There are NOW 4 kind of LIES; Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and the Media.)
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To: hoosiermama; null and void; KC_Lion; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; TWhiteBear; WildHighlander57; ...
This could be YUGE! The potential in this case has gubment wide implications and I hope retroactively....Thanx Hoosiermama!
11 posted on 04/15/2017 1:21:46 PM PDT by GregNH (If you can't fight, please find a good place to hide!)
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To: Conservative Gato

Amen!

Cutting them by 95% would be but eliminating them would be ideal.


12 posted on 04/15/2017 1:32:43 PM PDT by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: GregNH; hoosiermama

Thanks, Greg & hoosiermama!

This story should be followed closely...


13 posted on 04/15/2017 6:16:26 PM PDT by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57, returning after lurking since 2000)
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To: jazusamo

It’s time for the ropes.


14 posted on 04/15/2017 8:52:06 PM PDT by matthew fuller (The first amendment does NOT legalize the right to riot.)
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To: jazusamo

The guys at Judicial watch are true patriots they should be saluted.


15 posted on 04/16/2017 4:22:56 AM PDT by rodguy911 (Home of the Free because of the brave.MAGA!!)
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To: HokieMom
I love Judicial Watch.

I remember a quip by Groucho Marx, he said he new Doris Day before she was a virgin. Many here feel the same sentiment about JW, I am not one of them.

16 posted on 04/16/2017 6:48:52 PM PDT by itsahoot (As long as there is money to be divided, there will be division.)
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To: jazusamo

Bkmk


17 posted on 04/17/2017 4:43:45 PM PDT by sauropod (Beware the fury of a patient man. I've lost my patience!)
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