WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - An open government, non-profit organization has sued the U.S. Department of Interior (DoI) for failing to immediately respond to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding a former Michael Bloomberg-funded lawyer turned senior counselor to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Energy Policy Advocates complains in its federal lawsuit that the DoI unlawfully denied a speedy processing of ethics/recusal memoranda and documents involving Elizabeth Klein, who had served as co-director of State Energy & Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC) at New York University’s School of Law, a Bloomberg project that has paid the salaries of special assistant attorneys general, or SAAGs, in many blue states pursuing climate change litigation against Big Oil.
The suit claims that due to "real and/or potential conflicts," memoranda involving ethics or recusal are "of tremendous public importance."
At issue is whether Klein disclosed to the DoI before she was hired that she had previously worked for the SEEIC as an attorney representing approximately 17 states and the District of Columbia on particular matters adverse to the DoI or her former clients, according to Energy Policy Advocates.
Klein's name was withdrawn as nominee for Interior’s deputy secretary position in March due to her advocacy to curb fossil fuels, according to a report in the Washington Post.
Memoranda and documents responsive to Energy Policy Advocates' request "inherently must reveal either a lack of disclosure about Ms. Klein’s previous legal work (and therefore lack of required approval), or a disclosure and approval (with substantial restrictions) of conflicts so numerous as to render Ms. Klein incapable of participating on a broad array of matters for which the taxpayer presumably is paying for service, and about which the taxpayer deserves to know without further delay," the suit says.
Energy Policy Advocates executive director Rob Schilling said that despite previously acknowledging his organization as a "media outlet" with FOIA fees being waived, "this time the Department decided to classify our request as 'complex,' to treat our nonprofit as a commercial requester, and to deny our request for expedited processing."
Klein's former boss at SEEIC was David Hayes, who is currently acting as special assistant to President Biden for climate policy, a position that did not require Senate confirmation.
“The DoI apparently wants to decide how to handle what appears to be a problem, forcing us to sue to find out how the Department is handling its ethics obligations and its current employees' former work,” Schilling said.
The complaint against DoI was filed May 6 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia just three days after the plaintiffs submitted their information request through the FOIA online service on May 3.
On May 5, the DoI denied Energy Policy Advocates' request for expedited processing and for a fee waiver while also classifying EPA as a commercial requester despite its nonprofit status.
“There is an urgency to inform the public about the alleged government activity; namely, the potential that a senior Department official is operating in violation of regulations governing disclosure and approval of potential conflicts of interest or that the official is so restricted due to disclosed conflicts that decision-making within the Secretary’s Office is all but paralyzed with required efforts to work around such sweeping conflicts,” wrote attorney Matthew Hardin in the complaint.
The lawsuit, which seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, has been assigned to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is also presiding judge of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court. He was nominated by former President Barack Obama.
“We also asked whether the Department granted Ms. Klein an ethics waiver,” Schilling added. “This is public information. The Department has it readily at hand.”
Energy Policy Advocates is seeking completion of expedited processing, the release of all responsive records at no cost, and an award of attorneys fees and other litigation costs.
“The press release announcing Ms. Klein’s appointment made no mention of her recent employment as Deputy Director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at the New York University School of Law (the Center), which role carries significant ethics and disclosure obligations for Ms. Klein, and the Department,” Hardin wrote. “It is for that reason that this omission, whether inadvertent or deliberate, is troubling.”