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For Immediate Release
November, 02 2022, 01:43pm EDT
Contact:
Jordan Libowitz, jlibowitz@citizensforethics.org.
CREW Sues Over Missing Jan. 6 Texts
WASHINGTON
Multiple government agencies violated the Federal Records Act by failing to preserve text messages from January 2021 that are now missing, according to a new lawsuit filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The Secret Service, DHS, DOD, Army and National Archives have all failed to take enforcement action to recover missing texts and restore deleted texts from multiple Trump administration officials, and retrieve government records from former acting DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli's personal phone.
The missing records include text messages from top Trump administration officials at DHS, the Secret Service, DOD and the Army that were improperly deleted after being requested as part of investigations into the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol. They also include government records from Cuccinelli's personal phone that currently remain, unlawfully, outside of the government's custody. The agencies have known for months about the records being unlawfully deleted, but have failed to enforce the FRA through the Attorney General, as the law requires.
"Missing and destroyed federal records from top officials undermine government transparency and accountability, and it is imperative that agencies are complying with record-keeping laws," said CREW Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel Donald Sherman. "The loss of these particular federal records would leave a major gap in the factual record concerning the January 6th attack on the Capitol, impeding efforts to obtain answers and accountability for an unprecedented assault on American democracy."
The FRA has mandatory enforcement provisions which "require[] an agency head and [the] Archivist to take enforcement action through the Attorney General whenever they become aware of records being unlawfully removed or destroyed" and "leave no discretion to determine which cases to pursue." The missing records may contain critical evidence concerning the January 6th attack on the Capitol and could shed light on the reasons for the government's lack of preparedness for the attack, the government's day-of response, and the actions or inaction of key White House and Trump administration officials on and around the insurrection.
"These missing records are the property of the American public, and the government has a legal duty to recover them," said Sherman. "Government records must be preserved or retrieved when removed from federal custody, especially when they are critical to issues of public concern."
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials -- regardless of party affiliation -- who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach.
LATEST NEWS
Senate Democrats Expose Trump's Latest 'Fraud' and Lay Out Plan to Reduce Drug Costs as Prices Surge
"When Big Pharma gets richer off the back of a grandmother struggling to pay for cancer medication, the system is broken."
Feb 04, 2026
Led by Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, four Democratic senators on Wednesday outlined plans to reduce the costs of prescription drugs after President Donald Trump claimed he would do so—only to allow Big Pharma companies to delay negotiating lower prices and secure "zero commitments" from top executives on making lifesaving medications more affordable for millions of Americans.
“There is no greater fraud than Donald J. Trump when it comes to lower drug prices,” Wyden (D-Ore.) said. “Our doors are wide open to anybody who wants to take the bold next step forward on lowering drug costs for Americans."
Along with a "flash report" on Trump's "broken promises" regarding his pledge to bring drug prices down “to levels nobody ever thought was possible," Wyden sent a Dear Colleague letter to Democratic senators regarding his committee's plans to follow through with lowering costs.
"Finance Committee minority staff will dedicate substantial time and effort this year to developing the next generation of healthcare solutions that lower costs for American families," Wyden wrote. "These solutions will rein in Big Pharma’s outrageous price increases, lower costs for consumers, guarantee predictability for patients, and reduce wasteful government spending that pads the profits of big corporations. Alongside the co-signers of this letter, I invite you to be a part of this bold vision."
The letter, co-signed by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), notes that "the only concrete drug pricing policy Trump enacted within the past year was a price hike for the biggest blockbuster cancer drugs on Earth, giving an $8.8 billion windfall to the pharmaceutical industry."
In contrast, the senators wrote, the Senate Finance Committee will develop policies to incorporate international pricing models into the Medicare drug price negotiation framework, including by allowing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to consider international prices as a factor or penalize drugmakers when pricing for US customers exceeds international benchmarks.
“Democrats are determined to bring prices down, and we’re willing to work with anyone to find concrete ways to do it."
The committee will also work to end Republican "blockbuster drug bailouts from negotiation," like the ones included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that shielded several high-priced drugs—including the cancer drug Keytruda—from Medicare price negotiations.
"The Republican budget bill contained a nearly $9 billion sweetheart deal that benefits the biggest drug companies by delaying or exempting some lifesaving medications from negotiation," reads the Democrats' flash report.
Gallego said that "when Big Pharma gets richer off the back of a grandmother struggling to pay for cancer medication, the system is broken."
"That’s what this is all about: Big Pharma execs sitting in their fancy corner offices profiting off of sick, working-class Americans,” the senator said. “We are not going to accept an America where millions of families live in fear of getting sick and needing to fill a prescription. We are going to fight and fight hard for a healthcare system that does what Donald Trump never did: actually lower costs for working families.”
The lawmakers emphasized that even if manufacturers are forced to lower drug prices, patients are not currently guaranteed to directly benefit, because as much as 45% of the $5.4 trillion the US spends on healthcare annually is "absorbed by middlemen such as insurers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and drug distributors."
"Healthcare middlemen profit when drug costs are high because they make money off of drug margin or payments that are linked to the price of a drug, ripping off patients who pay more than they should. Medicare Part D and the patients it serves should stop footing the bill for inflated drug prices and instead pay for drugs in a more transparent manner that reduces middleman margin," wrote the senators.
The Finance Committee will develop policies to eliminate abuses in the prescription drug supply chain including "egregious drug price markups," and to ensure that patient cost-sharing on drugs more closely aligns with the costs to plans and PBMs.
Finally, the Democrats said they would work to fix the "unmitigated disaster" that Trump and Kennedy have been "for innovation and drug development," as the administration has proposed slashing the National Institutes of Health budget by 40% and has cut off access to treatment for an estimated 74,000 patients who were enrolled in NIH clinical trials.
The Finance Committee, they said, plans to create new incentives for innovation and drug development, including through the tax code.
In their flash report, the Democrats wrote that while failing to force Big Pharma to the negotiating table to save money for Americans, Trump "has been parading Big Pharma executives through the White House, claiming to be cutting cost-saving deals with these corporations."
"One look under the hood reveals the truth: Trump is giving them a pass on tariffs, while receiving zero commitments about how they will lower costs for taxpayers and patients," they wrote. "Donald Trump is getting fleeced by Big Pharma CEOs, and Americans are going to foot the bill."
Welch said that the president "loves to talk a big game and make promises to working families about lowering prescription drug prices. But in reality, his administration is handling this like a PR problem: They’ve got to keep moving and talking about it, but then do nothing to really address the crisis."
“Democrats are determined to bring prices down, and we’re willing to work with anyone to find concrete ways to do it," said Welch. "We’re going to lower healthcare costs and ensure everyone can access affordable, lifesaving, and pain-relieving medication.”
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ACLU Calls On UN to Initiate 'Urgent Action' Protocols Over Trump's Authoritarian Abuses in Minnesota
Federal law enforcement officials "have ignored basic human rights in their enforcement activity against Minnesotans, especially targeting Somali and Latino communities," said the ACLU.
Feb 04, 2026
The ACLU revealed on Wednesday that it has asked a United Nations committee to initiate "urgent action" protocols over the Trump administration's human rights abuses in Minnesota.
The national ACLU, alongside the ACLU of Minnesota, said that it reached out to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Tuesday and asked it to "use its early warning and urgent action procedure in response to the human rights crisis following the Trump administration's deployment of federal forces in Minneapolis and the St. Paul metropolitan area."
In its submission, the ACLU alleged that federal immigration officials "have ignored basic human rights in their enforcement activity against Minnesotans, especially targeting Somali and Latino communities," and it called on CERD to "issue a decision under its early warning and urgent actions procedures to intervene and investigate the US' grave violations of its human rights obligations."
Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program, said that the US government is in violation of international human rights treaty obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which prohibits "the use of racial and ethnic profiling, extrajudicial killings, and unlawful use of force against protesters and observers."
Teresa Nelson, legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota, explained the urgency in getting the international community to intervene in the US government's operations in her state.
"The Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota are being carried out by thousands of masked federal agents in military gear who are ignoring basic constitutional and human rights of Minnesotans,” Nelson said. “Their targeting of our Somali and Latino communities threatens Minnesotans’ most fundamental rights, and it has spread fear among immigrant communities and neighborhoods.”
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Asked If He'll Apologize to Alex Pretti's Family, JD Vance Scoffs 'For What?'
Others in the Trump administration have walked back the lie that Pretti was a "would-be-assassin." Vance isn't sorry.
Feb 04, 2026
Vice President JD Vance is refusing to apologize to the family of Alex Pretti after defaming the Minnesotan in order to justify his killing by Customs and Border Protection agents late last month on the streets of Minneapolis.
Video shows Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, was shot at least ten times by a pair of agents after being disarmed of a handgun, which he was carrying legally according to local police.
Within hours of the incident, the Trump administration had already begun to run with false claims that Pretti had "brandished" his weapon at agents, which were immediately disproven by video. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who first made the claim, has since backed off that characterization following criticism.
On social media, Vance shared a post in which senior White House adviser Stephen Miller described Pretti as a "would-be-assassin" who sought to "murder federal agents," a claim for which they have still not provided any evidence weeks later.
President Donald Trump himself told reporters last week that he did not believe Pretti was an assassin, even acknowledging that the shooting was a "mistake."
Even Miller, who rarely backs down from even the most extreme and outrageous statements, has since acknowledged that agents may not have been following protocol when they shot Pretti.
But Vance is not sorry. During an interview with the Daily Mail on Tuesday, when interviewer Philip Nieto asked if the vice president would apologize to Pretti's family, he retorted, "For what?" with a smirk.
"For, you know, labeling him an assassin with ill intent," Nieto answered.
“I just described to you what I said about Alex Pretti, which is that he’s a guy who showed up with ill intent to an ICE protest,” Vance responded, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Nieto then asked if Vance would apologize if an FBI probe opened last week found that the officers involved in the shooting had violated Pretti's civil rights.
Vance, appearing exasperated, sighed, “So if this hypothetical leads to that hypothetical leads to another hypothetical—”
Nieto then interjected, "It's a real case that's open."
"Like I said, we're gonna let the investigation determine," Vance said.
Then, in the ultimate dose of irony, he continued: "I don’t think it’s smart to prejudge the investigation, I don’t think it’s fair to those ICE officers,” he said, misidentifying the agency responsible for the shooting as ICE rather than CBP.
He notably did not give his thoughts on whether it was similarly unfair to "prejudge" Pretti as an attempted murderer within hours of his killing.
A clip of the interaction garnered immediate disgust online.
Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said that "JD Vance had the opportunity to be a normal human being and show some empathy for the family of a man who was murdered. To nobody's surprise, he’s doubling down on being an asshole."
Pedro Gonzalez, a right-wing activist who has since become fiercely critical of the Trump administration, said that with his "little smile after 'for what,'" Vance appeared to be "relishing the opportunity to seem cold-blooded."
He added, "What Vance really is at heart is a hollow shell of a man who defends the murderers of American citizens more vigorously than he has ever defended his own family from the bigots he's trying to court for 2028."
John Ganz, the author of the newsletter Unpopular Front, simply said Vance is the "most repulsive person in politics, and there is stiff competition."
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