Florida’s attorney general sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency this week after a former supervisor at the agency told FEMA workers to avoid homes with Donald Trump campaign signs during recent hurricane relief efforts.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by Attorney General Ashley Moody, names FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and former FEMA Supervisor Marn’i Washington as defendants.
“Although the facts will continue to emerge in the coming weeks and months, it is already clear that Defendant Washington conspired with senior FEMA officials, as well as those carrying out her orders, to violate the civil rights of Florida citizens, ” Moody alleged in the complaint.
The Daily Wire first reported last week that a FEMA employee had ordered first responders to pass homes with yard signs supporting Trump. The next day, Criswell announced that the employee had been fired for this, calling it “a clear violation of FEMA’s core values and principles of helping people regardless of their political beliefs.”
The employee, Washington, later told The Washington Examiner that she was merely following protocol in directing FEMA employees to avoid potentially hostile political encounters, which in the past have happened to take place in homes with Trump signs.
“The running trend of those encounters happened by chance [be at houses that] I have billboards for the Trump campaign,” she told the Examiner. “The leaked notation had nothing to do with their political position. It was for safety reasons.”
Washington also said the agency had made her a “scapegoat.”
Conspiracy theories about FEMA’s relief efforts were widespread in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which made landfall in Florida in September and October, respectively. Trump and his allies amplified these claims, including the false accusation that FEMA diverted disaster relief funds to house migrants illegally in the US. Trump also claimed that the federal government “went out of its way not to help people in Republican areas.” Some relief efforts were disrupted as a result, and FEMA workers reported facing threats. Local officials also pleaded with the public to stop spreading these claims.
That FEMA workers were told to avoid potentially hostile interactions is not unusual. But the scandal surrounding FEMA, which allegedly deprives people of aid because of their political beliefs, has engulfed Criswell. She will testify about the case before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee next week.
FEMA has declined to comment publicly on pending litigation.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
