By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — A conservative group has sued Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office to obtain documents related to the Park51 mosque and community center.
The Washington-based Judicial Watch wants to see all communications between the mayor’s office and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, one of Park51’s founders.
Judicial Watch also wants all correspondence between the mayor’s office and six Muslim groups, including the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which is involved in Park51, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The group first made a Freedom of Information Law request for the documents on Aug. 9, and the mayor’s office replied on Aug. 19 that they would issue a formal response within 20 days.
All Judicial Watch has received since then, though, is silence, so they filed a claim in New York State Supreme Court.
"They never got back to us, so we had to sue," said Tom Fitton, the group’s president. "What is it they’re hiding?"
Fitton called Bloomberg’s support of the planned 13-story center on Park Place "outrageous" and said he wanted to know if Bloomberg was hearing a different version of the plans behind the scenes.
Judicial Watch, a group that named President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi two of the most corrupt politicians in Washington earlier this year, frequently files Freedom of Information requests to make political points. The causes Judicial Watch has taken on range from fraud at ACORN to the rights of Joe the Plumber after his brush with fame.
A mayoral spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
