EPA Used Secret Emails Top Hide Info From Conservative Group

A federal judge says the Environmental Protection Agency's use of secret email accounts may have been aimed at skirting public disclosure requirements.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Wednesday that a conservative public interest law firm, the Landmark Legal Foundation, can question and obtain records from EPA officials as part of the firm's Freedom of Information lawsuit against the federal agency.

The judge granted Landmark the right to seek the information to determine whether top EPA officials used personal email accounts to conduct official business — and whether the agency initially excluded those accounts from Landmark's Freedom of Information request.

"The possibility that unsearched personal email accounts may have been used for official business raises the possibility that leaders in the EPA may have purposefully attempted to skirt disclosure under the FOIA," wrote Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

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