Judicial Watch announced on Jan. 11 that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for records of communications and meetings between then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Central Intelligence Agency (No. 1:21-cv-03387)).
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on December 31, 2021, after the CIA failed to respond to a September 15, 2021, Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for:
- All records of communication between CIA Director Gina Haspel and Gen. Mark Milley between November 1, 2020, and January 20, 2021.
- All records regarding all meetings between CIA Director Haspel and Gen. Milley between November 1, 2020, and January 20, 2021. This includes all summaries, notes, and transcripts, as well as all records created in preparation for, during, or pursuant to any such meeting.
Milley and Haspel reportedly had at least one conversation in which President Trump was attacked as being part of a “coup.”
“It ought to be disturbing to all Americans that the head of the CIA and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs were reportedly conspiring against the President of the United States,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Our new lawsuit will hopefully ferret out the truth about any plots to undermine President Trump by the military and CIA.”
On March 5, 2021, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DOD for records about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 8, 2021, telephone call with Milley. Pelosi acknowledged the call in a January 8 letter to her colleagues.