The Daily Caller News Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit on Monday over documents related to federal communication about China and the World Health Organization.
The nonprofit news organization filed the lawsuit through conservative activist group Judicial Watch, seeking the correspondence of Drs. Anthony Fauci and H. Clifford Lane, the two top health officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who are at the forefront of guiding the federal government on handling the coronavirus pandemic.
FOIA requests allow for the full or partial disclosure of unreleased information or documents controlled by the U.S. government.
According to a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Daily Caller News Foundation filed a FOIA request to the National Institutes of Health, which includes NIAID, on April 1 for Fauci’s and Lane’s emails, memos, and reports regarding the WHO; Wuhan, the city in China where the coronavirus outbreak began; and the Chinese government.
“We have a legitimate and urgent news purpose for seeking these documents regarding U.S. officials’ communications with the WHO and demand that the agencies in question stop stalling and start following FOIA, which clearly entitles us to this vital information,” the Daily Caller’s co-founder, Neil Patel, wrote in a public statement.
Judicial Watch said the lawsuit was filed after the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to the FOIA request asking for correspondence among health officials related to the coronavirus pandemic. Judicial Watch said the time period covered by the request was Jan. 1 to April 1, 2020.
The Daily Caller News Foundation, which is a separate legal entity from the Daily Caller, said the request was made largely because of the WHO’s “praise” for the Chinese government’s handling of the pandemic in contrast to other health officials who have criticized Beijing officials for not providing transparent information about its spread.
“We know that China and the WHO could have done a lot more to prevent or reduce this catastrophe,” Patel wrote.
The Daily Caller News Foundation was founded in 2010 jointly by Patel and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
