The Federal Emergency Management Agency and a former employee engaged in a conspiracy “to violate the civil rights of Florida citizens” who supported President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on Wednesday.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sued FEMA in the Southern District of Florida over allegations that hurricane relief workers were instructed to neglect residences with pro-Trump yard signs.
“Denying Florida residents disaster relief based on political affiliation and advocacy threatens their health and well-being,” the 16-page lawsuit reads. “Similarly, these actions deny Florida its place in the federal system because Florida residents disproportionately support President Trump. For example, Florida voters supported President Trump in the most recent election by a 13-point margin.”
Also named in the lawsuit are the agency’s current administrator, Deanne Criswell, and recently-fired supervisor Marn’i Washington.
The heart of the complaint relies on internal FEMA messages obtained by the Daily Wire last week in which Washington appeared to tell aid workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” as they canvassed Lake Placid, Florida, in response to the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Criswell quickly disavowed Washington in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter).
“This is a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation,” the director wrote. “This was reprehensible. I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct.”
In response to her firing, Washington spoke out — and continues to do so — saying, in essence, that she did nothing wrong or, at least, nothing that was not in line with FEMA guidance.
“The running trend of those encounters just so happened to [be at houses that] have Trump campaign signage,” the fired worker said in comments reported by the Washington Examiner. “The notation that was leaked had nothing to do with their political stance. It was with the objective of safety.”
The former FEMA supervisor reiterated and clarified her comments this week, according to The Miami Herald.
“We omitted these homes for safety precautions, not because of political plight. Like, no one cares about that. We want to make sure people can register,” Washington told radio host Roland Martin. “You have to understand, when we go out here in the field, we don’t have security detail. We do not have police detail. We are all we have in the field.”
The former employee went on to say workers were previously instructed to avoid homes with signs for Vice President Kamala Harris and homes with no signs whatsoever due to incidents of harassment.
The lawsuit argues that Washington’s comments to the media support the notion that FEMA and “other federal agencies working with FEMA” were “instructed to deny aid to Trump supporters.”
From the filing at length:
In the aftermath of the hurricanes and the concomitant canvassing efforts to assess qualified aid recipients, at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags” in Lake Placid “were skipped from the end of October and into November due to the guidance,” according to the lawsuit, citing whistleblowers.
Once a pro-Trump residence was skipped, FEMA workers even took note by logging such skips with messages like: “Trump sign no entry per leadership,” according to the lawsuit.
The filing alleges two distinct violations of the federal conspiracy to interfere with civil rights statute, 42 U.S.C. §1985.
The plaintiffs are seeking a declaratory judgment that the defendants “conspired to interfere with the civil rights of Trump supporters in Florida in violation of the deprivation clause.” The lawsuit also asks for nominal damages, punitive damages, and attorneys fees.
The case has been assigned to Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks.
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