A nonprofit legal organization filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Wednesday, alleging it has deleted federal employees\u2019 emails in violation of existing statute.<\/p>\n
In a sweeping complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the America First Legal Foundation (AFL), the group headed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, accused the Department of Health and Human Services of regularly deleting official emails and violating the Federal Records Act. The group also named the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which is tasked with overseeing the unlawful destruction of federal records, as a defendant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018If the National Archives decides not to use the legal authorities it has regarding federal records, it certainly shouldn\u2019t make up legal authority that it doesn\u2019t have when it comes to presidential records,\u2019 America First Legal Vice President Dan Epstein said in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u2018We expect our government to act in a transparent and accountable way and exercise equanimity when it decides to investigate certain allegations. We clearly haven\u2019t seen that in this case.\u2019<\/p>\n
According to Epstein, the lawsuit will have deep ramifications in Special Counsel Jack Smith\u2019s ongoing case against former President Donald Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smith is prosecuting Trump in connection to the former president\u2019s handling of classified documents and other presidential records after leaving the White House in early 2021. In June 2023, the Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment accusing Trump of 37 felony counts in connection with obstruction of justice and mishandling government records.<\/p>\n
Epstein, though, argued that Trump is being held to a different standard than federal employees who regularly delete emails and records without any repercussions. He said potentially tens of thousands of records are deleted every year without authority.<\/p>\n
The AFL\u2019s case is tied to a February 2023 records request the group filed under the Freedom of Information Act with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The group particularly requested records related to the CDC\u2019s support for \u2018teacher-led indoctrination of children with radical gender ideology.\u2019<\/p>\n
However, shortly thereafter, a CDC officer told the AFL in an email that the agency, which is housed at HHS, deletes most employee files 30 days after said employee departs the agency.<\/p>\n
\u2018That is correct,\u2019 the officer said in an email to the AFL. \u2018Unless they were a capstone director\/manager etc., it is my understanding all other employees\u2019 emails are deleted 30 days after they leave the agency.\u2019<\/p>\n
When the matter was brought to NARA, the AFL said the agency determined that, because the \u2018CDC instructs individual email account holders to apply retention based on the email\u2019s content value and its applicability to a NARA-approved records schedule,\u2019 the matter was considered closed.<\/p>\n
\u2018In effect, it appears that NARA entrusts individual CDC employees to decide which emails can be automatically deleted,\u2019 the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Federal law states that government agencies must \u2018make and preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency and designed to furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency\u2019s activities.\u2019<\/p>\n
The AFL argued that NARA\u2019s conclusion is \u2018patently inconsistent with the law.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018You have maybe tens of thousands of government records every year that are destroyed without authority,\u2019 Epstein told Fox News Digital. \u2018But when it comes to Donald Trump, he gets prosecuted. Everyone else who doesn\u2019t have to stand for election gets a free pass.\u2019<\/p>\n
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan were also named in the group\u2019s lawsuit filed Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital reached out to HHS and NARA for comment but did not immediately receive a response.<\/p>\n\n
A nonprofit legal organization filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Wednesday, alleging it has deleted federal employees\u2019 emails in violation of existing statute. In a sweeping complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the America First Legal Foundation (AFL), the group headed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}