Judicial Watch takes EPA to court over social media campaign

The conservative group Judicial Watch is taking the Environmental Protection Agency to court over failing to hand over documents detailing its use of social media to promote the Obama administration’s Waters of the U.S. Rule.

The group filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the EPA to release internal documents and emails related to its use of the Thunderclap social media platform after the Government Accountability Office found its use to be an illegal form of propaganda.

The group pointed out in announcing the legal action Wednesday that the GAO report issued in December 2015 concluded that the EPA’s use of Thunderclap to send out messages to raise support for the Waters of the U.S. Rule “constitutes covert propaganda” prohibited by law…