CDC Must Stop Deleting Emails: Judge

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on May 21, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A federal judge on Aug. 9 ordered the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop deleting emails from former employees, finding that the deletions likely violate federal law.

The CDC previously acknowledged in response to a Freedom of Information Act that it deletes emails from many former workers just 30 days after they leave the agency, although the CDC has since said that the accurate timeline is 90 days.

“The court concludes that CDC’s policy and practice of disposing of former employees’ emails ninety days after the end of their employment is likely unlawful,” U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said in his order.

The employees are not top-level officials like the CDC’s director, but are known as non-capstone employees.

The CDC’s policy clashes with rules from the U.S. archivist, or the head of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. One rule requires agencies to keep emails from former lower-level employees for at least three years. The CDC said in 2016 that it would use that rule for all employees, and there’s no evidence it ever received permission from the National Archives to use a different policy, Contreras said.

“Because CDC disposed of former employees’ email records pursuant to a schedule that was not approved by the archivist, it is likely that plaintiff is correct that records removed or deleted under the CDC’s unapproved policy were removed or deleted unlawfully,” he said.

Federal law requires in such an instance that the archivist refer the matter to the attorney general, but the archivist never did so.

The judge found that the CDC keeping its policy in place would likely harm the America First Legal Foundation, which brought the lawsuit, noting that CDC officials said in court filings that it is difficult or even impossible to recover emails that have been deleted. He entered a preliminary injunction ordering the CDC to keep former employees emails for at least three years have passed.

The judge also ordered the archivist to contact U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for help recovering the emails of former CDC employees that were destroyed and to make sure emails are properly preserved when lower-level workers leave the agency.

The CDC has said it does not comment on ongoing litigation.

The government “was actively destroying the records of federal employees at the CDC in blatant violation of the law–and we are pleased that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered a stop to their illegal conduct,” Gene Hamilton, the executive director of America First Legal, said in a statement.

“The Department of Justice has rightfully been ordered to assist with retrieving these records and putting an end to these illegal practices.”