The Intercept filed a public records lawsuit on Monday for documents about a financial surveillance program run by the Arizona attorney general’s office for more than a decade. For the past year, the attorney general’s office has denied multiple requests for records about its relationship with the Transaction Record Analysis Center, or TRAC, a nonprofit organization that runs a massive database containing details about millions of wire transfers sent through Western Union and other companies.
The database, which is fueled by administrative subpoenas issued by the Arizona attorney general’s office, offers an intimate glimpse into the financial lives of millions of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. Over the years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has played an outsized role in TRAC, not just as a top user of the wire transfer data but also as another data pipeline, via subpoenas that alarmed civil liberties watchdogs.
“The public has the right to know about mass government surveillance of its citizens,” said Heather E. Murray, associate director of Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic, which is representing The Intercept in the lawsuit, in an emailed statement. “Because TRAC is indisputably performing a core governmental function, the records that The Intercept seeks must be released by the AGO and TRAC to fulfill their transparency obligations under the Arizona Public Records Law.”
Ben Rundall, a partner at Zwillinger Wulkan in Phoenix, is also representing The Intercept in the case, which was filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.
“This completely defies the spirit and purpose of the [Arizona public records law].”
In response to The Intercept’s records request last year, TRAC claimed it is not subject to public records disclosure requirements because of its nonprofit structure.
But TRAC was established by the attorney general’s office in 2014, and records show close coordination over the years between agency officials and TRAC staff — who sometimes used official government email addresses. For years, one TRAC staff member even helped draft the administrative subpoenas, which she sent to the attorney general’s office for official signature before they were served on Western Union and the other money transfer businesses.
The attorney general’s office previously released hundreds of documents about TRAC’s structure and operations to the American Civil Liberties Union. But under Attorney General Kris Mayes, the office now claims it has no obligation to release similar materials because they are in TRAC’s possession.
“Stated directly, the AGO and TRAC are engaging in gamesmanship to avoid providing records about their public functions,” reads The Intercept’s court filing. “When a request is made to the AGO, it claims TRAC has the record. When a request is made to TRAC, it claims the AGO has the record. This completely defies the spirit and purpose of the [Arizona public records law].”
The attorney general’s office also previously disclosed to the ACLU more than 100 copies of subpoenas the agency has sent under the state’s racketeering law to more than two dozen companies since 2014. But in response to The Intercept’s request, the agency said releasing any more subpoenas would violate the racketeering law itself.
“We are correcting the previous administration’s error and following the law,” wrote Richie Taylor, communications director for Mayes’s office, in an email last year.
An ACLU attorney, Nate Freed Wessler, previously called the agency’s argument about disclosing the subpoenas “wrong and borderline frivolous.”
The racketeering law “has nothing to do with the AGO’s responsibility to disclose records,” The Intercept argues in its filing. “Withholding these records does not comport with any exception to public access provided in Arizona law.”