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Law360 (May 6, 2020, 9:24 PM EDT) -- A nonprofit government watchdog has sued the Trump administration for ignoring requests to release emails sent by top officials related to the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
American Oversight filed the suit Tuesday in D.C. federal court against the Treasury Department, State Department, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the HHS' Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. The watchdog said it sent the Freedom of Information Act requests in mid-March and the federal agencies all failed to hand over the emails in the time required by law.
The organization requested all emails sent by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and HHS head Alex Azar containing COVID-19-related terms such as "corona," "pandemic," "Covid-19," "Wuhan," "mask," "distancing," "quarantine" and "vaccine."
"While the president and White House officials take unearned victory laps and try to reopen the country, the administration is anticipating a near doubling of the daily coronavirus death toll by June. We need more transparency and accountability to get to the bottom of this historic failure of leadership," Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, told Law360 on Wednesday.
American Oversight alleged in the complaint that up until May 5, it had not heard whether the government agencies would comply with the FOIA requests within the period required by law. The nongovernmental organization did get confirmation the requests had been received and a denial of faster processing time.
"Defendants have failed to promptly and adequately review agency records for the purpose of locating those records that are responsive to American Oversight's FOIA request," the organization alleged in the suit.
According to the complaint, the State Department denied the NGO's request for expedited processing on March 30, saying it "will not be able to respond within the required 20 days provided by statute due to 'unusual circumstances.'" American Oversight appealed the denial in mid-April but has not heard back from the department, according to the suit.
Treasury and HHS never responded to the NGO's expedited processing request, the watchdog alleged.
In the complaint, American Oversight justified its demand for faster processing by citing the "urgent need" for the public to know how the government responded to a "public health emergency that has already resulted in the deaths of nearly seventy-thousand U.S. residents."
American Oversight is demanding attorney fees and litigation costs from the four federal agencies and asking the judge to hold that the agencies must provide the requested records and indexes justifying their withholding of certain records within 20 days or by another date the court decides.
Founded in 2017, American Oversight publishes senior officials' calendars, emails and expenses it received from FOIA requests to the public.
The agencies did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday.
American Oversight is represented by their legal counsel Christine H. Monahan.
Counsel information for the Treasury Department, State Department, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Department, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, were not immediately available.
The case is American Oversight v. U.S. Department of The Treasury et al, case number 1:20-cv-01169, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
--Editing by Michael Watanabe.
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