Federal watchdog sues U.S. Interior Department over FOIA noncompliance
- November 16, 2022
Juliette Fairley, Legal Newsline
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – A federal watchdog sued the Department of the Interior (DOI) last week for non-compliance with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that targeted high-ranking officials in the U.S. agency.
The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after more than a full year since Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) received a reply from the DOI regarding Raina Thiele, Martha Williams, and Elizabeth Klein, who is Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s senior counselor.
“We believe the American public has a right to know which political appointees have received exemptions from the ethics restrictions that would normally apply,” said Michael Chamberlain, executive director of PPT. “Ethics obligations exist to ensure that government decisions that affect the lives and livelihoods of Americans are not influenced by conflicts of interest.”