Sooner or later, it is going to become an article of faith in many familiar quarters that the reason for the current administration's failures is that moles from the previous administration are undermining the brilliant policy prescriptions designed to Make America Great Again. And, in case anyone had any doubt about this, the good folks at Judicial Watch already are on the case.

Those of us whose memories extend back to the Great Penis Chase of the 1990s remember JW as the playtoy of litigious polymath Larry Klayman, who made a living suing the Clintons and was last seen outside the White House fence having a deep sad because President Obama didn't take Larry up on his demand that Obama resign. Klayman left JW in 2004 to pursue other delus…er…interests, including an unsuccessful lawsuit against this magazine, but JW has gone on as one of the more high-profile platforms of the right-wing media apparatus.

Last week, JW announced that it was suing the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to respond to a FOIA request submitted by JW seeking information about whether or not EPA officials used encrypted cellphones in order to keep their communications secure from the new people in charge. The suit alleges that this was done to "thwart government oversight and transparency," but, in support of its action, the suit cites a story from Tiger Beat On The Potomac that reads as follows:

Whether inside the Environmental Protection Agency, within the Foreign Service, on the edges of the Labor Department or beyond, employees are using new technology … to organize letters, talk strategy, or contact media outlets and other groups to express their dissent. Fearing for their jobs, the employees began communicating incognito using the app Signal shortly after Trump's inauguration. [T]he goal is to "create a network across the agency" of people who will raise red flags if Trump's appointees do anything unlawful.

In other words, this isn't about "oversight and transparency." This is about protecting the process of dismantling the EPA under Scott Pruitt and about "thwarting" attempts to preserve actual scientific data from being pillaged by the various sublets of the extraction industries that are being put in charge of environmental policy.

Whenever the White House changes hands, the old administration tries to take steps to preserve its legacy—or cover its ass—before the new people take over. When George H.W. Bush handed over the keys to Bill Clinton, a veritable orgy of shredding took place all over the government. (Remember the BNL scandal? That was cool. It ended as confetti in the DOJ.) Since then, rumors have flown every time a president of the opposite party moves in.

This is different, however. This was done to protect work product against the calculated enfeeblement of the EPA itself, against the crushing of its original mission, and against its obligation to the country to keep the country safe from environmental threat. I will guarantee you that somebody within the EPA bureaucracy emailed someone else in the EPA bureaucracy and said something disparaging about the president*, Pruitt, or the administration in general. This will be blown up into the EPA Mole Scandal or something and there will be hearings, and Special Reports, and Steve Doocy will say something exceedingly stupid that the president* will retweet.

The rightwing Wurlitzer never sleeps. It runs on an inexhaustible supply of uninformed outrage and an equally inexhaustible supply of funding from the nation's corporate plutocrats. Ni shagu nazad, as we say around the shebeen. Which is why , by national treasure Jane Mayer, is the most important book on domestic politics of the past five years. Now available in paperback!

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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