Watchdogs Turned Up More Evidence Obama’s EPA Broke Federal Law
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By Chris White Published on November 28, 2017
https://stream.org/watchdogs-turned-...e-federal-law/

Former President Barack Obama’s EPA
used a social media platform to secretly promote the agency’s policies in violation of federal law...


...Judicial Watch obtained 900 pages of documents Monday showing the EPA used social media to lobby support for the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. The agency used Thunderclap, a platform that shares messages across Facebook and Twitter, to recruit outside groups to generate support for various environmental policies.

Federal law prohibits agencies from engaging in propaganda. It also forbids agencies from using federal resources to conduct grassroots campaigns that prod U.S. citizens into browbeating lawmakers to act on pending legislation.

“I don’t want it to look like
EPA used our own social media accounts to reach our support goal,” former EPA Director of Web Communications Jessica Orquina wrote in an email ...


...Judicial Watch obtained the email records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit after the EPA failed to respond to a FOIA request in May....



....“EPA is planning to use a new social media application called Thunderclap to provide a way for people to show their support for clean water and the agency’s proposal to protect it,” Loop wrote at the time before explaining how the ploy works.

“If 500 or more people sign up to participate, the message will be posted on everyone’s walls and feeds at the same time. But if fewer than 500 sign up, nothing happens. So, it is important to both sign up and encourage others to do so,” he added.

Loop then contacted Orquina in a Sept. 10 email of that year to ask her how to rope other agencies into the scheme....




...“The Obama EPA knowingly did an end run around federal law to push another Obama environmental power grab,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press statement Monday. “These documents show how these Obama-era bureaucrats seem to be more like social activists than public employees.”

Former Obama-era EPA officials did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment in time for the publication of this article.