A government watchdog group filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the State Department asking for communications of senior officials related to a series of opinion columns by John Solomon in The Hill that have been blamed for fueling conspiracy theories at the center of the impeachment inquiry.

Democracy Forward Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog group, says the Trump administration has failed to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for communication between senior State Department officials and Solomon, a former columnist for The Hill whose articles contributed to the ousting of the Ukrainian ambassador and revived accusations that the Obama administration covered up improper dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenFormer Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick Bloomberg rolls out M ad buy to boost Biden in Florida MORE, his son Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy firm.

The group said its lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., fulfills an urgent public need to determine if senior government officials were complicit in publication of the articles that are at the heart of the impeachment inquiry and could amount to “covert propaganda that violates federal law.”

The watchdog group said the State Department has not provided any of the information requested in the FOIA filing within the time period required.

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State Department correspondence is included in the lawsuit, which provides receipt of the request and that the department put it on an expedited track to be fulfilled, but that it would be fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis related to other similar requests.

The lawsuit was filed two days after the State Department letter was sent to Democracy Forward.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

Democracy Forward is calling for the agency to provide communications regarding or referencing Solomon from several administration officials who have testified or been referenced in the impeachment inquiry.

This includes acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, former special envoy to Ukraineand U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, who testified Wednesday.The lawsuit also calls for communications by Secretary of State“The Trump administration is unlawfully withholding records that could expose high-level State Department officials using a right-wing reporter to spark the misinformation campaign at the heart of the Trump impeachment inquiry,” Democracy Forward Press Secretary Charisma Troiano said in a statement. “The public deserves to know whether the Trump administration violated anti-propaganda laws.”The lawsuit calls for communications, including those on encrypted messaging apps, between Solomon and State Department officials.Solomon’s articles have featured prominently in witness testimony in the impeachment investigation. His articles have been described as being part of a disinformation campaign against former Ukraine Ambassador, with the purpose of removing her from Kyiv.