CISA Website Scrubbing of Domestic Censorship Activity Records Following Congressional Oversight Inquiry – Awareness of Pending Investigation (US)

[Reasonable Inference – As to § 1519 applicability, pending determination of whether CISA officials knew of pending investigation when scrubbing occurred] Following the initiation of congressional oversight proceedings and the filing of Missouri v. Biden litigation, CISA deleted references to its domestic speech-monitoring and censorship-coordination activities from its public-facing website. The specific content that was removed included references to the CFITF’s domestic monitoring work and links or descriptions of CISA’s coordination with the EIP and social media platforms. This deletion occurred in spring 2023, after it became apparent that the records were potentially relevant to litigation and congressional investigation. The deliberate alteration or destruction of agency records that may be material to pending investigation or litigation may constitute a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1519 (destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations), even if the records are web-published rather than internal files, because they constitute agency records potentially relevant to pending proceedings. The Federal Records Act (44 U.S.C. § 3101) independently requires agencies to preserve records documenting agency activities and policies.