Lawsuit accuses state department, DOJ of stonewalling FOIA requests regarding climate office personnel

FIRST ON FOX: The State Department is facing heightened unit to disclose accusation regarding its climate office unit members aft a caller suit accuses them of stonewalling. 

Power the Future (PTF), an vigor watchdog group, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) petition for an unredacted database of erstwhile Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry’s unit successful January.

SPEC has an estimated $13.9 cardinal yearly fund from the State Department with support for 45 personnel, Fox News Digital antecedently reported, but Kerry has remained quiet astir his clime staff implicit the years.

PTF filed a lawsuit against the State Department successful February aft reportedly experiencing a strategy of delays successful the disclosure of the names and occupation titles of Kerry's staff, which they said were highly redacted successful its archetypal release. As of September, the section has reportedly not disclosed each the members of the clime office, prompting PTF to instrumentality their enactment a measurement further, Fox News Digital has learned. 

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Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attends the Viva Technology amusement astatine Parc des Expositions Porte de Versailles connected May 23, 2024 successful Paris, France.  (Chesnot)

A caller PTF complaint, filed connected Oct. 3, claims that the Biden administration's "climate" cognition astatine SPEC is displaying a "clear signifier and practice" of delayed FOIA responses. 

The lawsuit, 1 of 14 filed by PTF against the State Department, besides names the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia connected claims that they are keeping accusation regarding SPEC’s operations from the public. 

"For years, Power The Future has sought morganatic accusation nether the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) connected John Kerry’s Climate Office, its budget, staff, mission, and extracurricular coordination, and for years we person been told, ‘No,’" Daniel Tuner, Founder & Executive Director of PTF, told Fox News Digital.

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The suit besides claims that the bureau is going against legislature standards for FOIA effect times.

John Podesta participates successful the first-ever National Outdoor Recreation Executive Forum hosted by Outdoor Recreation Roundtable astatine Decatur House connected May 07, 2024 successful Washington, DC. (Paul Morigi)

"Despite erstwhile lawsuits, this medication continues to coordinate a blockade keeping immoderate accusation astir this concealed bureau from reaching the public, particularly earlier the November election," Turner said. "John Kerry is not supra the law, and the weaponization of national agencies turning them into the governmental instrumentality demonstrates a level of corruption emblematic of the greenish question but profoundly disturbing successful our national government."

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The House Oversight Committee launched an probe into the bureau of the SPEC regarding imaginable struggle of interests betwixt the office's unit members and "leftist biology groups."

Kerry stepped down arsenic Biden's clime envoy successful January and was replaced by John Podesta.

Efforts to scope the State Department, the DOJ, the SPEC and the national U.S. Attorney for D.C. were unsuccessful.