After hearing that high-ranking officials in the Biden administration is using encrypted messages to communicate, Sen John Barrasso fired off a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Monday, expressing his concern over the matter. This is Hillary’s emails all over again. Encrypting messages makes it impossible to suitably fill FOIA requests and does not allow transparency.
Barrasso was informed of the use of encrypted messages from someone who has frequent contact with the two agencies involved. Barrasso is also concerned that the message encryption is being used to hide illegal activity. Since both Departments are headed by Democrats, that seems entirely possible. Especially since both were selected by The Big Guy.
Barrasso said:
“The use of these encrypted applications, such as Signal, could represent an effort to cloak certain communications, limit Administration accountability, and potentially obscure illicit activity.”
“These reports are deeply concerning. As you know, it is imperative that executive branch officials, especially unelected appointees, operate with the utmost integrity and transparency to maintain the public trust.”
Barrasso asked both Haaland and Granholm how their departments communicate and whether the encryption hardware is used when sending communications to the White House.
He has given them one week to respond:
“I am not aware that any of the employees at the department are using encrypted messaging apps or devices if that’s the proper term to conduct government business., The mere fact that you raised this question with me is going to cause me to make some inquiries at the department and let folks know that this is not a permissible way to do business.”
Anderson noted that federal officials received mandatory ethics training during their first week in office and were instructed to keep “government records as government records” during the sessions.
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