Judicial Watch Sues State Department for Records Labeling President Trump and Cabinet Officials as ‘Disinformation Purveyors’

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. State Department for all records which allege President Trump or any current or former member of his cabinet are “purveyors of disinformation” (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:25-cv-01978)).

Judicial Watch states in the complaint:

According to media reports on April 30, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the State Department labeled a member of President Trump’s cabinet as a purveyor of disinformation, compiling a dossier of social media posts from the unnamed cabinet member. See, e.g., “Rubio says State had dossier accusing Trump Cabinet member of disinformation,” The Hill, April 30, 2025 (available at https://thehill.com/video/rubio-says-state-had-dossier-accusingtrump-cabinet-member-of-disinformation/10674871/ )

Judicial Watch sued the State Department after it failed to respond to a May 1, 2025, FOIA request for records, including those of the Global Engagement Center (GEC), about social media posts of any current or former member of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, to include Trump himself, alleged to constitute misinformation, disinformation, or malign influence. Judicial Watch also asked for any guidance or policy documents.

During the April 30, 2025, cabinet meeting, Rubio said: “We had an office in the Department of State whose job it was to censor Americans.”

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs South and Central Asia Subcommittee, said at a hearing in April about the center: “The GEC [Global Engagement Center] was initially authorized for the statutory purpose of countering foreign propaganda and disinformation efforts. Despite that mandate, for years the GEC instead deployed its shadowy network of grantees and sub-grantees to facilitate the censorship of American voices …”

“The Biden censorship operation was compiling files on his political enemies from Trump world. The State Department should immediately disclose the records about this abuse, as FOIA requires,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

In March, Judicial Watch filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States concerning a Judicial Watch lawsuit asserting that the California Secretary of State retaliated against Judicial Watch because of an accurate election integrity video posted to YouTube just before the 2020 Election (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Shirley Weber, in her official capacity as Secretary of State of the State of California (No. 2:22-cv-06894)). The California Secretary of State used its well-established working relationship with Big Tech to have YouTube remove and censor Judicial Watch’s video.

One Judicial lawsuit has uncovered numerous records showing the government working with outside groups to censor free speech: 

• In November 2024, Judicial Watch uncovered records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealing an extensive effort by government and non-government entities to monitor and censor social media posts on fraud during the 2020 election.
• In June, Homeland Security records from this case showed state election officials in the days before and after the 2020 election flagging online content deemed “misinformation” and sending it to the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a DHS-funded nonprofit, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is a division of DHS, the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), which was created to flag online election content for censorship and suppression.
• In December 2023, Homeland Security records showed a close collaboration between CISA and the leftist EIP to engage in “real-time narrative tracking” on all major social media platforms in the days leading up to the 2020 election.
• In November 2023, additional Homeland Security records showed showing government involvement in the EIP pressure on Google, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit and other platforms to censor “disinformation.” (Judicial Watch Inc. vs. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:22-cv-03560 )).

In August 2024, Judicial Watch received records from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) revealing that it was trolling on social media and reporting on alleged “domestic violent extremism” (DVE).

###