Well this story all of a sudden got juicy. Apparently the Justice Department has agreed in a lawsuit to release 12,000 emails from Lisa Jackson’s alias email account where she went by the alias ‘Richard Windsor’. The attorney that went after the emails says it’s no coincidence that she resigned:
FOX NEWS – A Washington attorney suing the Obama administration for access to alias emails sent by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson claims that a recent decision by the Justice Department to release thousands of those emails next month contributed to her resigning Thursday.
Jackson, in a brief written statement, said Thursday she is leaving the EPA after four years on the job, for “new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference.”
The agency did not offer an explanation. But Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the scrutiny over the alias emails is clearly a factor.
“Life’s full of coincidences, but this is too many,” he told FoxNews.com. “She had no choice.”
Horner and CEI earlier this year had sued the EPA for documents pertaining to Jackson’s use of alias email accounts. She was said to operate under the name “Richard Windsor” — the use of those accounts has since drawn the scrutiny of Republican members of Congress, as well as triggered an audit by the EPA inspector general.
According to court documents, the EPA — represented by the Justice Department — two weeks ago agreed to release as many as 12,000 emails pertaining to the CEI request beginning by Jan. 14, at a rate of 3,000 documents per month. The court accepted the schedule last week.
Horner said the increased scrutiny on the alias account, coupled with what those emails might contain regarding the administration’s alleged “war on coal,” likely contributed to Jackson’s announcement Thursday.
“She, by her action, told us that these are records she doesn’t want the people to see,” Horner said.
(h/t: PJ Tatler)