Judicial Watch Sues for Government Emails from Private Accounts of Top Justice Official

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for work-related emails on U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s nongovernment email accounts (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:24-cv-00527)).

In June 2023, Judicial Watch received FOIA records from the Justice Department that showed top officials of its National Security Division discussing the political implications of former President Trump allowing CNN to use closed-circuit TV footage of the raid on his Mar-a-Lago home, including an email exchange in which Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Marshall Miller appears to forward information to Monaco’s personal account.

This new lawsuit comes after the Justice Department completely ignored a Judicial Watch a follow-up 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,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

In addition to having uncovered the Clinton email scandal, Judicial Watch is in the forefront of the court battles for transparency regarding Biden administration’s targeting of former President Trump.

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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