Emergency communicationJustice Department sues to block release of FirstNet-related information
A federal court in Des Moines, Iowa, accepted arguments by Justice Department lawyers to issue a temporary injunction to block the release by an Iowa Sherriff of e-mails pertaining to a public safety communication network. The Justice Department argued the release of e-mails could seriously impede plans for this single, interoperable network designed to resolve the communications problems that hampered responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and other disasters. FirstNet, to whose board Fitzgerald was appointed last year, was authorized by Congress in 2012 to develop and deploy the communications network and is housed in the Department of Commerce.
The Justice Department asked a federal court Des Moines to issue an injunction to prevent Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald of Story County, Iowa, from releasing e-mails to news outlet Politico or other outlets. Fitzgerald serves on a federal board charged with building a high-speed broadband network for emergency responders. The Washington Post reports that Justice Department lawyers argued the release of e-mails could seriously impede plans for this single, interoperable network designed to resolve the communications problems that hampered responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and other disasters.
FirstNet, to whose board Fitzgerald was appointed last year, was authorized by Congress in 2012 to develop and deploy the communications network and is housed in the Department of Commerce.
According to Politico, Sheriff Fitzgerald shared with the Commerce Department’s Inspector General new evidence that some fellow board members were too closely tied to wireless carriers and have ignored public safety officials’ communications needs. Politico had asked Story County to release Fitzgerald’s FirstNet e-mails as they were sent through the county’s e-mail service.
At the request of the Justice Department, U.S District Judge James Gritzner on 20 August approved an order to block the records’ release for fourteen days. Story County Attorney Stephen Holmes agreed with the temporary order, but said he was inclined to release the e-mails at a hearing scheduled after the order’s expiration date.
Deputy Iowa Attorney General Julie Pottorff insists that since the subject in discussion, FirstNet, is a federally authorized program, the federal government should decide how to respond to Politico’s request for the release of the emails. The Department of Justice claims that the e-mails are federal records and that Congress had exempted FirstNet from the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Explaining why the Justice Department was seeking to block the release of Fitzgerald’s e-mails, Acting Associate Attorney General Elizabeth Taylor warned that Fitzgerald has sensitive information about FirstNet which, if disclosed through the release of e-mails, might be potentially damaging to the country’s ability to respond quickly to national emergencies and national disasters.
