Whistleblowers report that at least 20 homes displaying Trump signs or flags in Florida town were skipped by FEMA workers from the end of October into November.
MIAMI—Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced that she is taking legal action against Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell and recently fired supervisor Marn’i Washington for “conspiracy to discriminate against Florida hurricane victims who support President-elect Donald Trump.”
Moody is seeking nominal damages, punitive damages in the defendants’ individual capacities, and a declaration that these FEMA officials “conspired to interfere with the civil rights of Florida citizens.”
“Hurricane season is not over, and the federal agency in charge of emergency response is embroiled in scandal—caught withholding aid from storm victims in Florida who support President Trump,” Moody said in a statement. “I am taking swift legal action to find out how far this political discrimination reaches and to make sure all Americans who fall victim to devastating storms are served, regardless of their political affiliation.”
Moody filed the complaint after Washington, a FEMA supervisor, was fired on Nov. 9 for allegedly urging her team not to visit homes of storm victims that displayed signs supporting Trump in Lake Placid, Florida.
Moody’s complaint cites whistleblowers who reported FEMA workers in Lake Placid were directed to ignore storm victims displaying Trump signs or flags outside their homes. The complaint states that messages such as “Trump sign no entry per leadership” were reportedly entered into a government database, and this guidance caused at least 20 homes with Trump signs or flags in Lake Placid to be avoided from the end of October into November.
Criswell called the allegation against Washington “reprehensible” and “a clear violation of FEMA’s core values & principles to help people regardless of their political affiliation.” She also announced on Nov. 9 that the agency would be conducting an investigation into the matter. Senior FEMA officials said they had no knowledge of the alleged discrimination.
Washington has since said in interviews that she is being treated as a “scapegoat,” that similar actions occurred across areas affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton, including in North Carolina, and that senior FEMA officials’ claim that they did not know about the alleged directive is a “lie.”
The Epoch Times reached out to FEMA for comment on the matter but did not hear back by publication time.
Moody said the alleged directive and subsequent relief workers’ actions were in violation of the “support or advocacy clause,” which applies when “two or more persons conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President or Vice President, or as a Member of Congress of the United States; or to injure any citizen in person or property on account of such support or advocacy.”
She also said FEMA officials violated “the deprivation clause.”
This will require Moody to prove the existence of such a conspiracy to directly or indirectly deprive “a person or class of persons of equal protection under the law,” prove there was an act to further such a conspiracy, and prove that it resulted in ”injury to a person or their property or the deprivation of a right or privilege to a citizen.”
In this case, that deprivation is the denial of emergency aid after the devastating hurricanes.
“While the facts will continue to come out over the 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 wrote in her complaint.
The Supreme Court, she stated, has previously recognized that states may sue in some capacity “on behalf of their citizens to prevent unlawful discrimination.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement that he supports Moody’s legal action.
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.