Horner and CEI v. GMU
George Mason University (GMU) faculty claimed “no records” existed in response to a Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) FOIA request regarding the involvement of Professor Ed Maibach in the RICO-20 campaign seeking prosecution of opponents of his view of climate policy. Yet, CEI has evidence of such records. This prompted CEI to sue GMU over the FOIA dispute, which aims to inform the public about the role of Maibach in organizing the campaign led by GMU Professor Jagadish Shukla calling for prosecution of their political opponents.
Emails the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) obtained under the Washington State and Florida open records acts show Professor Maibach, a taxpayer-funded instructor of “how to mobilize populations to adopt behaviors and support public policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” used his University title, position and email account in the RICO-20 effort. Numerous records provided by other state universities notwithstanding, GMU informed CEI that Prof. Maibach insisted he had no records responsive to the same request to that school.
CEI’s FOIA efforts extend to each university represented in the letter. The lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court in the City of Richmond, Va.
A judge for the Richmond Circuit Court of Virginia on 13th May lifted his protective order on documents from and to Professor Edward Maibach of George Mason University regarding the RICO-20 letter. The documents were immediately released and have been posted here.
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