President Donald Trump and his administration have been hit with an onslaught of lawsuits since his return to the White House, but according Newsweek, on Friday they received some rare legal pushback from a conservative organization.
Per Newsweek's report, Judicial Watch, a conservative nonprofit, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services, alleging that the agency had failed to provide a timely response to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The group requested survey information pertaining to abortion-related research at a facility in Pittsburgh.
The request was initially submitted on May 30 of last year, and according to the filing, while it was acknowledged by HHS on the same day, the organization has not heard back about it since then. The nonprofit is looking to obtain "All documents and communications of officials in the Office of Extramural Research concerning the Final Research Performance Progress Report (FRPPR) for the GUDMAP program at the University of Pittsburgh (Project Number U24- DK110791-01)," as part of an investigation for fetal tissue research programs using federal funds.
"As of the date of this Complaint (Jan. 2, 2026), Defendant has failed to: (i) determine whether to comply with the request; (ii) notify Plaintiff of any such determination or the reasons therefor; (iii) advise Plaintiff of the right to appeal any adverse determination; or (iv) produce the requested records or otherwise demonstrate that the requested records are exempt from production," the lawsuit alleged.
Newsweek noted that this lawsuit is among many that the Trump administration has faced for its alleged failures to comply with FOIA requests in a timely manner. Judicial Watch, for example, also sued the Justice Department over allegations that its FOIA request for "records about the alleged transfer of fetal tissue" was not answered sufficiently.
“Americans have a right to know basic information about the taxpayer-funded abortion industrial complex," Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a statement. "As long as the government continues to fund these gruesome projects, Judicial Watch will work to expose them.”